286 CAMELLIA CARAGANA 



C. RETICULATA, Lindley. 



(Bot. Mag., tt. 2784, 4976.) 



An evergreen shrub or small tree. Leaves dull green, toothed, 4 to 6 ins. 

 long. Flowers 6 to 7 ins. across, usually semi-double, the undulated petals of a 

 beautiful soft deep rose, surrounding a fine cluster of golden stamens. 



Native of China ; introduced to the Horticultural Society's garden at 

 Chiswick in 1820. Perhaps the finest flowered of all camellias, this can only be 

 cultivated successfully out-of-doors in the south-western counties and in similar 

 localities. In Flora and Sylva, vol. ii., p. 303, there is said to be a bush at 

 Creg, near Fermoy, Co. Cork, that is 60 ft. round. Its dull-surfaced leaves 

 distinguish it from the other red-flowered sorts. 



C. SASANQUA, Thunberg. 



(Bot. Mag., t. 5152.) 



An evergreen shrub or small tree. Leaves shining dark green, i J to 3! ins. 

 long, one-third to half as much wide, obovate or narrowly oval, with rounded 

 teeth on the margin. Flowers ij to 2 ins. across, white in a wild state, pale 

 pink to deep rose in cultivated varieties, of which the Japanese have raised a 

 considerable number, some with double flowers. Widely spread in China, and 

 the most popular of camellias in Japan, this species was first introduced to 

 England by one of the East India Company's captains in 1811. It flowers in 

 winter and early spring, and although quite as hardy in itself as C. japonica, 

 it is more liable to have its flowers injured. It thrives remarkably well, in 

 N. Italy, where bushes approaching 20 ft. in height and not much less in 

 diameter are of very close, dense habit. 



C. THEA, Link. TEA PLANT. 



(Thea assamica, Masters.") 



An evergreen shrub with lance-shaped, short-stalked leaves up to 4j ins. in 

 length, and about one-third as wide ; smooth, dull green, shallowly toothed. 

 Flowers fragrant, dull white, I to i ins. across ; one to three of them produced 

 in the leaf-axils on stalks J in. long. Stamens very numerous, with yellow 

 anthers. 



The tea plant is not so hardy as C. japonica or C. Sasanqua, but may be 

 grown out-of-doors in the mildest counties. It has no particular attraction 

 beyond its interest as one of the most important economic plants of the world. 

 Although cultivated for ages by the Chinese, the tea plant is really a native of 

 Upper Assam. The tea now so largely imported from N. India and Ceylon is 

 produced by cultivated varieties, introduced to those countries from China 

 about 1851. 



CARAGANA. LEGUMINOS^E. 



A genus of shrubs, one of which becomes occasionally a small tree, 

 mostly natives of Central Asia, but distributed over the vast tract of land 

 between the Caucasus and Japan. The leaves are alternate and pinnate, 

 the leaflets being of even number, frequently four, but in C. microphylla 

 occasionally eighteen or twenty to each leaf. The flower is pea-shaped, 

 with the standard petal curled back at the sides. Most of the species 



