JMetliod of raising Camellias in Washinglon. 171 



Art. IV. Remarks on the method of raising seedling Ca- 

 mellias^ as practised in Washington, D. C. By Dr. J. 



S. GUNNELL. 



In a late number of your Magazine, you alluded to INIr. J. 

 B. Smith's method of raising camellias by hybridization, so 

 as to increase and improve the varieties of this superb flower. 

 In your number for April, which now lies before me, I notice 

 a further account of the experience of another amateur in 

 Philadelphia. 



As 1 have had some considerable experience in prodticing 

 new seedling camellias, I will give you a brief account of my 

 practice also, not intending to call in question the plan or sys- 

 tem of any other cultivator. I generally take a pair of curved 

 forceps, pliers, or tweezers, with which I can pick out all the 

 anthers or stamens from the bottom of the flowers: I then ap- 

 ply the farina or pollen, selected on purpose, directly to the 

 stigma; this I do with one, or as many varieties as I can get 

 from flowers that are suitable to select from. I find, by using 

 the pollen from white camellias, (although it be applied to the 

 stigmas of red ones,) the progeny are apt to be mostly white 

 or light colored varieties; and when the pollen from a white 

 variety is applied to the stigma of another white flower, the 

 young plants are almost certain to produce light flowers, or 

 those with light grounds. 



When I have a fine variety in bloom, from which it is de- 

 sirable to impregnate others, and have no plants in flower to 

 enable me to do so, 1 frequently select plants which show 

 buds nearly ready to expand, and take ofl" the petals, after- 

 wards applying the pollen in the usual manner, not forgetting, 

 however, to repeat it for two or three days in succession, so 

 as to insure certainty of fecundation. By following this 

 method, complete success has been the result, and the oppor- 

 tunity has not been lost, which may often happen if the culti- 

 vator is obliged to wait until a flower is expanded, of impreg- 

 nating with some of the most superb sorts. I am never influ- 

 enced by the time of day, or temperature of the house, in my 

 practice, but perform the operation at all times, when conven- 

 ient to do so, and I have not perceived but that the same 

 success attended all my experiments. 



About three years since, I succeeded in seeding the Ca- 

 mellia maliflora or Sasdnqiia j'osea, but had the misfortune to 



