552 GENERAL REVIEW. 



taining seeds from any variety of the Pompone or Middlemist's 

 Camellia, by putting it in a house rather warmer and with less 

 ventilation than suits greenhouse plants in general, impreg- 

 nating the stigma, and cutting off the corolla before it begins 

 to decay, so that the air may have free admission to it, without 

 which precaution it will perish in most cases from damp." 

 The late Dean Herbert raised numerous varieties of large and 

 small flowered or Pompone Camellias, for a list of which and 

 their pedigree see his ' Amaryllidaceae,' p. 367. This author 

 observes that " there is a strange mutability in the flowering 

 (sporting) of Camellias" a fact which Chinese, Italian, French, 

 and Belgian raisers have long turned to good account by 

 grafting the sports or reversions when distinct on common red 

 or white seedling stocks, and distributing them as new sorts. 

 Mr Chandler and Mr Gray also raised numerous seedlings, and 

 others were sent out from Colville's nursery. In America, 

 Marshal P. Wilder has raised seedling Camellias, and he thus 

 writes on the subject (see 'Gard. Chron.,' 1873, P- 575) : " I n 

 my experiments I have discovered that for the production of 

 double flowers it is important that the pollen used for impreg- 

 nation should be borne on a petaloid anther that is, an anther 

 bearing a small petal and that this is still better if from a 

 double flower. I have also observed that the larger and better 

 developed this petaloid anther, the better the chance for a fine 

 double offspring; for, as might have been expected, the anthers 

 being connected with the corolla, the number of petals would 

 be increased by such an operation. I found also that for the 

 most perfect and symmetrical flowers it was better to select 

 single flowers which were the most perfect in their petals for 

 seed-bearers, and that single or semi-double sorts with perfect 

 corollas, when impregnated with " petaloid " pollen, will produce 

 double flowers of a regular formation. Of this I have the most 

 conclusive evidence in Camellia Wilderi and many other fine 

 double varieties in my collection, which were produced from 

 the single red and single white Camellias fertilised by pollen 

 from a petaloid anther of double varieties. 



Grafting. All the finest seminal varieties or " sports " are 

 propagated by grafting on stocks of the old single red variety, 

 which is generally planted out in a greenhouse border to supply 

 cuttings for stocks. Cuttings are made of the partly-ripened 

 shoots, inserted in pans or a bed of sandy earth, and covered 

 with a close shade or a hand-light. It is best, however, to place 

 the cuttings firmly in well-drained pans, surfaced with white 

 sand, and to set them in a cool shady frame under a hand-light 

 for two or three weeks; after which place them in a moist 



