C '" ) 



frost is also needed ; the Camellia and Myrtle being nearly 

 equally hardy. The most usual mode of propagation is by 

 cuttings taken in July and August from the Single Camellia, 

 which are found to strike root more readily than the double 

 varieties ; they are planted in pots half filled with the Camel- 

 lia compust described, and the upper half with fine white 

 sand. The pots are plunged in a tan-bed, which exhales a 

 gentle warmth, and closely shaded for three or four months, 

 by which time short fibry roots, or a cicatrice, from which 

 they afterwards diverge, are mostly produced. When suffi- 

 ciently rooted to bear removal, they are potted singly in small 

 pots, the sand being then carefully removed, for although 

 efficient in the first instance in the production of fibres, its 

 continuance is injurious ; in fact, they will not long survive 

 if wholly in sand. When the young plants have attained the 

 size of a flowering branch of a double variety, which they 

 generally do in three years, they are inarched, a mode of 

 grafting which differs from the common practice, in the 

 scion remaining on its parent stem till united to the plant to 

 which it is attached." 



Ptfonia moutan^ or Tree Pteony. *In the gardens of 

 China they cultivate an immense number of varieties of this 

 splendid plant, some of which are said to be sold as high as 

 a hundred ounces of gold ; and in so much esteem is it held 

 by them, that it is there called the "King of Flowers." If 

 kept in pots in the house, the flowers are produced in March 

 and April ; but I find it supports the winters of Long-Island 

 without any protection, and even further north they could be 

 planted in the open ground, where a common frame would 

 be quite sufficient to protect them. Three varieties have 

 flowered in the garden of the author, of which short descrip- 

 tions will be given. 



P&onia moutan banksii, or Chinese Purfile Sweet Tree 

 Pteony. This is of a light purple or lilac colour, inter- 

 mingled with some paler shades ; the tints of the flower are pt - 

 culiarly delicate, and it has the mild and agreeable fragrance 

 of the rose; the flowers are about 18 or 20 inches in cir- 

 cumference, and form what is so rarely met with, a combina- 

 tion of splendour, delicacy, and fragrance : they are distin- 

 uished by their often projecting very much in the centre, 

 everal plants are in my garden which produce from 40 to 

 50 flowers annually, and they are planted 1 out, as all the other 

 varieties are, in the open ground without protection, where 

 they have been growing eleven years. 



