38 MONOGRAPHY OF THE GENUS CAMELLIA. 



in the spring, it is necessary, immediately after that delicate operation, to 

 carefully repot the shrub, place it in a green-house, where there is a con- 

 siderable elevation of temperature, to induce it to throw out its new branches 

 vigorously and in season to get well ripened before the cold weather com- 

 mences. If the plants are pruned in August, it becomes requisite to sacrifice 

 the existing buds, and a year is lost, before the blossoms can be enjoyed j for 

 at this epoch the vegetation of the Camellia, is disposed to repose; but the 

 after growth in the spring, which succeeds the pruning, will be much more 

 vigorous, and the new branches with which the plant is supplied, will begin 

 to bear buds the second year. 



Besides, the Camellias which are pruned in August, may remain in the 

 open air until the common period, when all the plants are returned to the 

 green-house; but those which are pruned in the spring, require to be put in 

 a glazed hot bed, immediately after that operation, as has been before said ; 

 for without this precaution, they vegetate but slowly, and produce only small 

 and feeble shoots, which do not blossom for several years. 



Section 13. — The multiplication of the Camellia. 



The Camellia is multiplied in three manners: by the seeds, cuttings, or 

 layers and grafts. 



By seeds. — The seeds are planted, in a hot bed, under glass, in a peat 

 soil, which has been passed through a sieve. The seeds which are sown, 

 should have naturally arrived at maturity, which is easily known, by their 

 falling spontaneously from their hard pericarps. The bed should be lightly 

 covered with moss, to keep up, continually, a slight humidity. The seeds 

 often remain two years before they vegetate, but sometimes the young plants 

 appear the first year. As soon as the plants have attained about two inches 

 in height, they are to be taken up, with a small ball of earth attached to 

 each, and put into separate little pots, which are to be arranged in the same 

 hot-bed, and protected from the air and sun, until they are in a state to 

 bear exposure, when they are to be managed in the same manner as has 

 been recommended for Camellias generally. At the expiration of five or 

 six years, nearly all of these individuals, are in a flowering state; some of 

 them, however, do not blossom for twelve years, as we have experienced. 

 Seeds of the Camellia which were gathered in 1819, from the celebrated 



