PREFACE OF THE AUTHOR. 



Being passionately fond of Botany, I have passed the most delightful 

 moments of my life, in the study of flowers; but was very much embarrassed 

 in making a selection of the kind, to which I should devote my special atten- 

 tion, from the immense series of the vegetable families, which presented 

 their respective beauties to my admiration. At length, after great hesita- 

 tion, I finally gave the preference to the genus of the Camellia; and in fact, 

 what species of plant is there, which better merits the enlightened and vigi- 

 lant care of the horticulturist? The elegance of its form, the beautiful 

 verdure of its leaves, and the pure and brilliant color of its large and elegant 

 flowers, sufliciently justify the choice I have made; especially, when not 

 only a vast number of distinguished amateurs have imitated me in this 

 adoption, but there is not a garden, in which this lovely plant has not found 

 a place, and where it sparkles in the first rank of the vegetable population. 

 Every civilized nation immediately adopted the Japanese adventurer, with 

 emulous admiration, and now the Camellia- has become a cosmopolite. 



But, in consequence of the eagerness which every one has evinced to 

 welcome this beautiful stranger into their conservatories, where it produced 

 numerous varieties, rivalling each other in elegance and splendor, there has 

 resulted a great confusion, which has consequently occasioned much diffi- 

 culty in appreciating the obtained varieties, and rendered it very desirable 

 to the cultivators, that a convenient mode of classification should be estab- 

 lished, to guide them in this new Dsedalus. And, how could it be otherwise, 

 when the many different modes of multiplication are considered, which have 

 been discovered by the science of horticulture, — a science, which has been 

 carried to such a high degree of perfection in our day; and also, the facility 

 with which this plant produces seeds, especially in the southern portions 

 of Europe. 



Thus, every where, the number of varieties have increased and conse- 

 quently a confusion in the specific names; so that now the series present a 

 perfect synonymical chaos, which is often left to the decision of the ignorant 

 to reform, and we might say, even sometimes, to the malevolent. 



