292 Berlese's Monographic du Genre Camellia. 



and retarding the flowering of the plants by a temperature, during winter, 

 somewhat lower than usual. By this treatment, he found some of the va- 

 rieties above mentioned expand their blossoms to the fullest extent. 



Camellias are very much injured when kept in crowded rooms ; but the 

 abbe thinks they might be exhibited there in cases of plate glass, and also 

 between the sashes where there were double windows, and a considerable 

 space between the outer and inner sash. In planting Camellias in a conser- 

 vatory, great attention must be had to the under drainage of the soil ; because the 

 roots of no plant are more easily destroyed by the excess of stagnant moisture. 

 As no Camellia will endure more than 4° or 5° Reaum. of cold (20° to23°Fahr.), 

 it is useless to try them in the open air in the neighbourhood of Paris ; but in 

 the warmer parts of Europe they become magnificent trees : for example, one 

 at Caserta (brought from London by GraEffer, and planted therein 1760,) was, 

 when the abbe saw it, in 1819, 40 ft. high, with its branches covering a space 

 nearly 70 ft. in diameter. It flowered abundantly every spring; and every flower 

 was succeeded by fruit and ripe seeds. The'abbe visited this tree several times ; 

 and he made an accurate portrait of it, which he presented, on his return to 

 France through Geneva, to Professor De CandoUe. 



[We saw this tree in 1819 ; and an account of it, and of some other trees and 

 shrubs at Caserta, will be found in a former volume of this Magazine, and in 

 the Arb. et Friit. Brit., p. 168.] 



The Camellia bears pruning better than most other evergreen exotics ; and 

 the best periods for performing the operation are, the spring, immediately after 

 the flowers have dropped ; or the summer, after the growth of the second 

 shoot, that is, towards the middle of August. Those which are pruned in the 

 latter season may remain in the open air for the usual period; but those which 

 are pruned in spring should be immediately afterwards put into a close frame, 

 otherwise their growth will be slow and weak. 



The Camellia is propagated by seed, layers, cuttings, and grafts. The seeds 

 should be sown, as soon as they are ripe, in heath soil, and placed in a mild 

 and humid atmosphere. They sometimes come up the first year, but more 

 frequently not till the second. Transplanted into separate pots, and treated 

 with the usual care, they will generally flower at the end of five or six years ; 

 though sometimes not for double that period. Seeds collected by the abbe 

 from the tree at Caserta, in 1819, did not flower till 1831, and two plants not 

 till 1836, when they were of fifteen years' growth. The way to make seed- 

 ling Camellias flower promptly is to graft them, in their second or third year, on 

 strong and vigorous stocks. Camellias are propagated by cuttings, chiefly for 

 the purpose of obtaining stocks for grafting others on. The single or semi- 

 double red, and the pink, are the varieties usually chosen for this purpose. 

 The cuttings are taken off in the spring, and are of the preceding years' wood, 

 Sin. or 6 in. in length : they are planted in sandy peat, covered with a bell- 

 glass, and plunged in peat ; where, being kept shaded and moderately moist, 

 they will produce roots in six weeks. Cuttings may also be rooted, without 

 the aid of bottom heat, by taking them oW in autumn, and keeping them from 

 the frost during the winter ; but this mode is considered too tedious. The 

 mode of propagating by layers is not approved of in France, as requiring too 

 much space in the houses or pits, and also the sacrifice of large and handsome 

 plants to form the stools. 



Grafting is considered the most expeditious mode; and the kinds of graft- 

 ing most commonly employed in Belgium and France are, by approach, by slit 

 or cleft-grafting, by side-grafting, and by approach-cuttings. The first mode is 

 well known. Camellias grafted by approach, in March, are fit to separate by 

 the end of August ; those in May, in October. 



Slit, or cleft, grafting universall}' known to gardeners, is by far the most ex- 

 peditious mode, especially as practised by M. Soulange, in his establishment at 

 Fromont, where he raises thousands of fine plants in an incredibly short space 

 of time. M. Soulange calls this mode of grafting, with his improvement, 

 Greffe etouffee; because, the moment they are grafted, each plant is covered 

 with a bell-glass, and plunged in tan, in a pit kept at a high temperature, where 



