388 THE CAMELLIA. 



those countries in the respective seasons of growth and 

 rest, the more successful is our practice likely to be. The 

 plant is almost hardy in our climate. It loves the shade 

 and dislikes heat, except during the seasons of flowering 

 and growth, and even in the flowering season the flowers 

 are larger and last longer when opening in a cool tem- 

 perature. The young roots are fine, hair-like, and ex- 

 ceedingly numerous, requiring a light porous soil in which 

 to work and expand freely. From a cultural point of view 

 the Camellia may be associated with the Rhododendron, 

 not only thriving best in a similar soil (light fibrous loam 

 or peat), but requiring also in most points similar treat- 

 ment, with the addition of a glass structure from which the 

 frost is excluded to protect the flowers in winter and early 

 spring, at which period they naturally expand. 



ON PROPAGATION. 



The Camellia may be propagated in various ways. It 

 is grown from seed, principally with the view of obtaining 

 new varieties. The seed should be gathered as soon as 

 ripe, soaked in warm water for twenty-four hours, and sown 

 immediately afterwards in light fibrous loam or peat. If 

 sown in pans, covered with not less than an inch of soil, 

 and placed in a warm part of the greenhouse, it will pro- 

 bably vegetate in a few weeks, but it not unfrequently lies 

 in the ground for a year and a-half or even two years. 

 Care should be taken to keep the soil in an equable state 

 of moisture, and the cultivator here is more likely to err on 

 the side of giving too little water rather than too much 

 water ; the outer covering of the seed is very hard, and 

 heat and moisture are the agents by which we seek to 

 soften it to facilitate vegetation. When the seedlings are 

 rising they should be shaded constantly in sunny weather, 

 and when they have formed their third leaf they should be 

 carefully transferred into single pots with as much soil to 

 the roots as possible, and kept in the same temperature 

 and shaded as before. 



