ON THE CAMELLIA AND ITS CULTURE. 369 



Loddiges grew them in peat alone, in loam alone, and in a 

 mixture of both. 



I have found Camellias grow more luxuriantly in loam 

 than in peat, but they flower more freely in a mixture of 

 both. Some people are accustomed to speak of loam and 

 peat as if these words possessed a precise and definite 

 signification, whereas, according to my experience, they 

 possess a very vague and indefinite one. There is rich 

 peat and hungry peat, sandy peat and fibrous peat, and 

 horribile dictu ! sour peat, which is usually gathered in low 

 wet places, and which every good gardener will studiously 

 avoid. Loams vary in a similar manner. The physical or 

 mechanical properties of the soil are of scarcely less 

 importance here than its chemical properties. We want a 

 soil that is open and porous, which it will certainly be if 

 sand and fibre abound in it. 



The soil I prefer for the Camellia is composed of three 

 parts sandy loam and one part fibrous peat and leaf mould 

 in equal quantities. If sandy loam is not readily obtain- 

 able, light loam may be used with the addition of drift 

 sand. To this add a few small lumps of charcoal, and a 

 few pieces of crushed bones. Manure, however, I prefer, 

 given principally in a liquid state during the season of 

 flowering and growth only. These different materials 

 should be broken up and mixed together some months 

 before they are required for use, and be turned over 

 occasionally that the component parts may become 

 thoroughly incorporated, and every part be subjected 

 to the mellowing influences of sun and air. 



Secondly, of Climate. We have seen that the plants 

 first introduced were killed by being kept in hothouses ; it 

 is therefore amusing to find old Abercrombie including the 

 Camellia among hothouse plants fifty years later. The 

 fact is, the plant is nearly hardy in the climate of Britain, 

 and the less fire heat employed, except during the growing 

 season, the better. In the flowering season the flowers do 

 not expand kindly, and often fall speedily if placed in heat. 

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