32 MONOGRAPHY OF THE GENUS CAMELLIA. 



orous. We have observed, that if nature is not aided, at this period, by an 

 increase of heat, the new shoots, being left in a too low temperature, are sud- 

 denly checked and become hardened, before their natural maturity is com- 

 pleted. In this conjuncture, the development of the buds becomes more 

 difficult, in consequence of the hardness of the wood, and is not effected 

 until a later period j they are often, from this cause, less numerous, and very 

 imperfect i and besides, they fall off, on the first change of temperature. It 

 is probable, that this fatal accident is in consequence of their no longer re- 

 ceiving that lacteous nourishment, from the herbaceous shoots which con- 

 tributes so powerfully to produce, and firmly attach them to the branch, 

 which they are destined to embellish, at a later period. 



When the buds are perfectly formed, — which is, as has been said, in 

 about three weeks after the first effort of the plant to throw out new shoots — 

 care must be taken, to diminish, gradually, the heat of the green-house, 

 until the period, when the Camellias are removed into the open airj which 

 is usually towards the end of June. 



Finally, being placed in its summer exposition, the Camellia demands 

 the strictest observance, of all those directions, which were given in the 

 fifth section. 



But those directions, however well attended to, will not prevent the fall 

 of the buds, if it is neglected to keep the plant in a uniformly equal teni- 

 feraturdy of between 47 and 50 degrees during the day, and 43 and 45 in the 

 night, from the first of October, until the end of March. We designedly 

 insist upon the necessity of a strict attention to this uniformly equal tempera- 

 ture, because, that in fact, whether the Camellia is kept, during the rigorous 

 season, in a constant temperature of but from four to six degrees above the 

 freezing point of 32, by only permitting the heat to be augmented by the 

 exterior atmosphere j or whether the temperature of the greenhouse is al- 

 ways maintained up to between 54 and 60, this double difference, remaining 

 constantly the same, cannot in either case be injurious to the florescence. In 

 the first it will be only later and in the second more precocious j but if, in 

 the last hypothesis, the artificial heat, is, for even a short period, too violent, 

 in consequence of the furnace being badly managed, the plant will bloom 

 well, it is true, but, not having enjoyed a constantly uniform temperature, in 

 the green-house, up to the usual period of its removal, it languishes, loses 



