THE CAMELLIA AND TEA FAMILY. 551 



white, and scarcely the size of a shilling, being in form like a 

 small single Camellia. The different forms of prepared tea, as 

 sold in our shops, seem to depend on the methods of prepara- 

 tion, or on the age of the leaf when gathered, rather than on 

 different kinds of the Tea-plant. 



Camellia.* This is one of the most variable and beautiful 

 of all our winter-blooming greenhouse plants, several species 

 being grown in our gardens, but most of the varieties are 

 " sports," seminal or hybrid forms of C. japonica, which appears 

 to have been introduced in 1739. C. oleifera, from the seeds 

 of which an excellent oil is extracted by the Chinese, was 

 introduced in 1819. C. maliflora (1818), and C. sasanqua, 

 a small-leaved species (of which there are double white and 

 double and semi-double red and variegated varieties), are now 

 referred to Thea. The last is a very pretty plant indeed, a 

 Pompone Camellia, from which the hybridiser might do worse 

 than raise a race of bushy-habited plants, with flowers little 

 larger than a shilling the flowers of the ordinary varieties 

 being too large for button-holes, and adding a heavy appear- 

 ance to bouquets if too freely used. 



C. reticulata, introduced in 1824, is by some thought to be 

 a distinct species, but is probably a distinct form of C.japonica. 

 It is singular to observe that a perfectly single or normal 

 flower of C. japonica is very rarely to be met with, which is 

 much to be regretted, for the single white when perfect is one 

 of the loveliest of all flowers, even more beautiful that is, 

 whiter and more perfect in form than Rosa bracteata or R. 

 rugosa alba. Hybridisers, in attempting to raise single-flowered 

 forms, should select parent plants which bear the most per- 

 fect i.e., normal single flowers; and the pollen should be 

 selected from those stamens which are free that is, not fused 

 into irregular bundles, as is generally the case. In raising 

 double-flowered varieties, select a seed-bearing plant which 

 bears flowers showing a strong tendency to become double, 

 and procure pollen from the best-developed anthers, which 

 are found on the edges of the petals or petaloid filaments of 

 a double-flowered variety. The late Dean Herbert, in 1837, 

 recommends that the seed-bearing plants should be kept ra- 

 ther close, and receive a superabundance of moisture at the 

 root. Young shoots should be pinched in or shortened so 

 as to divert the whole nutriment of the plant, or as much as 

 is possible, to the seed-vessels. " I have no difficulty in ob- 



* For a synopsis of the genus Camellia, see ' Trans. Linn. Soc.,' xxii. 

 337. Camellia fruits and seeds are well figured in ' Card. Chron.,' 1873, 

 P- 1733- 



