TERNSTRCEMIA GEM. 



237 



Thea (Camellia) japonica. 



■. 





the styles remain free in almost the whole of their height and the 

 ovules are five or six in number in each cell, more or less distinctly 

 descendent. In certain others, the corolla of which are often of 

 large dimensions and rich colouring (fig. 258), there is often, but not 

 constantly, an interior stamen, free, or nearly so in front of each 

 petal ; this distinguishes Camellia, 1 ge- 

 nerally considered as constituting a 

 separate genus, but which only ought to 

 form a section of the genus Tea. Thus 

 considered, this genus contains some 

 dozen species, 2 frutescent or arbores- 

 cent, natives of tropical Eastern Asia, 

 and of the Indian Archipelago. The 

 leaves are alternate persistent, simple, 

 dentate, coriaceous or membranous. 

 The petiole is exstipulate and usually 

 articulated at the base. The flowers 



occupying the axils of the leaves, especially of the upper ones, are 

 solitary or united in small cymes, the pedicels bearing one or several 

 bracts smaller than the sepals to which they are analogous. 



Beside Thea are placed the nearly-allied genera of Gordonia (figs. 

 254, 255) and Zaplacea. The former has an indefinite number of 

 ovules in each cell, a generally elongated capsule, and seeds prolonged 

 above into a membranous wing. The stamens may be united below 

 into a circular cushion, and the single style dilates in its upper 

 part into a stigmatiferous head with short radiated lobes. 



In Zaplacea, on the contrary, the perianth and the androceum 

 remain the same ; the styles, from five to ten in number, are free to 

 the base, or the stigmatic tissue may directly crown each of the 

 ovary cells. 



Fig. 253. 

 Flower. 



1 L., Gen., n. 848. — J., Gen., 262. — Lame., 

 Diet., i. 572; Suppl., ii. 48; Ill.,t. 504.— Cav., 

 Diss., vi. 305. — Cambess., in Mem. Mus., xvi. 

 415. — DC, Prodr., i. 529.— Tuep., in Diet, des 

 8c, Nat., Atl., t. 152. — Spach., Suit, a Puffon, 

 iv. 84. — Endl., Gen., n. 5425. — Chois., in Mem. 

 Gen., 148. — Seem., in Trans. Linn. Soc, xxii. 

 337.— B. H., Gen., 187, n. 24.— H. Bn., in 

 Payer Fam. Nat., 265. — Tsubaki K^empf., 

 Amcen., 851. — Adans., Fam. des PL, ii. 399. — 

 Sassanyua Nees, in Sieb. Nippon, ii. 13. — Cal- 

 pandria, Bl., Pijdr., 178. — Koeth., Verh. Nat. 



Gesch. Pot., 148, t. 31.—? Cordyloblaste 



Hensch., in Pot. Zeit. (1848), 604. 



2 Duham., Arbr., ed nov. t. 71. — Jacq., To. 

 Ear., t. 553.— Sieb. & Zucc, Fl. Jap., t. 82, 83. 

 — Wall., PI. As. Ear., iii. t. 256. — Korth., in 



Verh. Nat. Gesch. Pot., 149 (Calpandria). — 

 Seem., Voy. Her. Pot., t. 76-78. — Ande., Pot. 

 Eepos., t. 25.— Pot. Peg., t. 567, 942, 1078.— 

 Pot. May., t. 42, 2080, 2784, 4976, 5014, 5152. 

 — Walp., Ann., ii. 178; iv. 351; vii. 367 

 (Camellia), 373. 



