GREENHOUSE PLANTS. 249 



GREENHOUSE PLANTS. 



We have no conservatory, but only a cold glass shed, yet we con- 

 trive to grow many plants by keeping them under the vines in winter, 

 and by removing them to the glass shed or outer air in spring. Indeed 

 some of my plants are simply placed in the cold frames and matted over 

 in frosty weather. 



First and foremost, the Camellias {Camellia japonica, fig. 504) give 

 us noble flowers in the spring. The camellias were introduced into 

 Florence from Japan by a monk of the name 

 of Camellus, and to this day they are exten- 

 sively grown in that elegant city. There 

 they attain to the 'dimensions of trees, having 

 thousands of blossoms ; and at one private 

 garden about 1,200 varieties are grown. At 

 Florence, and indeed along the shores of the 

 Mediterranean, they are grown in rotten 



^ . Fig. 504. — Camellia. 



chestnut wood, and nourish abundantly m 



that material. In England such material cannot be procured, but I 

 have tried rotten tan and also fibrous peat with success, and I am 

 now trying cocoa-nut refuse as a substitute for chestnut wood, but 

 am unable to give an opinion upon its merits at present. Rotten elm 

 wood did not suit the plants ; but it is plain from what the Floren- 

 tine gardeners told me that our mode of culture is not right. 

 Camellias are raised from seed at Florence, by sowing it in a 

 shady place in the open ground. If the flower of any seedling 

 plant is satisfactory, the plant is named and propagated by grafting : 

 if unsatisfactory, it is used as a stock upon which an approved kind 

 is worked. I have raised seed which was given to me at Florence, 

 but have never grafted the young plants. Out of such numerous 

 varieties it is impossible to particularize many ; yet every garden 

 should possess the double white, the fimbriata, and some of the double 

 red and shaded kinds. The names of my camellias have not been 

 carefully kept ; but I consulted Mr. Veitch, who kindly favoured 



