MONOGRAPHY OF THE GENUS CAMELLIA. 39 



tree at Caserta, did not bloom until 1831, and we have two plants, which 

 were produced from those seeds, that flowered for the first time in 1836, 

 which was more than fifteen years after they were planted. 



To induce Camellias, obtained from the seed, to bloom promptly, they 

 must be grafted as soon as the wood is sufficiently matured, which is in their 

 second or third year. This should be done only on the most vigorous plants, 

 to render the florescence more certain and rapid. 



By cuttings. — This method is employed to obtain free stalks, but more 

 often to procure subjects for grafting; and the single red or fink are usually 

 selected for this purpose. 



The following is the most simple manner of performing the operation. 

 ^^ In the spring, the shoots,, of the preceding year's growth, are selected, 

 from the single, or semi-double Camellias, which are divided into cuttings, 

 from four to six inches in length j these are set out together a few lines 

 distant from each other, in pots filled with peat soil, which are plunged in 

 a pit of tanners' bark and covered with a hand glass, or placed in a shaded 

 position of the green-house; from time to time, it is necessary to raise the 

 hand glasses, and wipe off the interior humidity, and occasionally moisten 

 the cuttings, with a little watering pot, made expressly for the purpose. Cut- 

 tings thus managed take root, in about six weeks, and when the roots are suffi- 

 ciently developed, they are transplanted into small pots, where they remain 

 until large enough for being engrafted. The Camellia can thus be multi- 

 plied by cuttings, in green-houses, which have no artificial heat, and without 

 the aid of tan; but the process is too long and often uncertain. 



The Camellia can also be multiplied by layers; but horticulturists have 

 generally renounced this mode of operation, because the subjects thus 

 treated, take too long a time to root, occupy too much space in the green- 

 house, or hot-beds, besides requiring the sacrifice of the most beautiful 

 branches; and the result is not in proportion to the labor, time and expense, 

 which it occasions; grafting, therefore, is the expedient of multiplication, 

 which every where prevails. 



Section 14. — Different methods of grafting the Camellia. 



Grafting. — The Camellia, which it is desired to multiply, is generally 

 grafted upon stocks of the single red variety, or any other single or double 



