212 Thfi Cultivation of the Camellia. 



tion was planted out in the borders, the other in pots. With 

 the latter collection, I had a practical connection. I consider 

 that in one most important respect, nine-tenths of cultivators 

 fail, namely, in the application of sufficient heat when the 

 plants are making their young wood and setting their buds. 

 I will begin with the plants on the first of May, when, 

 generally speaking, their season of blooming has terminated 

 in the greenhouse or conservatory, from either of which I 

 would remove them at once to a vinery, where the grapes are 

 just thinned, giving them a thorough washing overhead with 

 the syringe, and allowing them to have a temperature vary- 

 ing from 65° to 70° during the night, to 85° during the day ; 

 supplying them abundantly with water daily at their roots 

 as well as overhead. They will at once start into rapid 

 growth, and as soon as the young shoots have finished their 

 elongation, (which is easily observed by their developing the 

 terminal leaf of the shoot, close to which the embryo flower- 

 buds a})pear,) the best season for examining their roots and 

 shifting such as require it has arrived. On turning a plant 

 out of the pot, it is frequently found that there are patches of 

 the ball where the roots are dead, and the soil in a sodden 

 unhealthy state, Avhile in other parts the roots are fresh and 

 vigorous. The former must be carefully removed by the aid 

 of a pointed stick, and if the roots are much decayed, the 

 knife may be used, and the roots pruned ; but the latter must 

 be as carefully preserved : and as I have had demonstration 

 of the fact, that camellias may be kept in excellent health 

 and bloomed freely, without giving them large shifts, I do 

 not recommend such, as it makes the plants difficult to move 

 from one house to the other, and has also a tendency to make 

 them develope coarse shoots destitute of bloom. Where high 

 health and abundant bloom is simply the object of the culti- 

 vator, I recommend the progression that prevails in the sizes 

 of pots — say, from what is known in some parts of the coun- 

 try as a 12 to an 8 — and I would frequently replace the plant 

 even in the same sized pot as that from which it was taken ; 

 this should be the case when much of the ball is found in 

 the sodden state above alluded to. The soil in which they 



