THE FLORIST, AND 



HISTORY AND MANAGEMENT OF THE CAMELLIA. 



The Camellia, according to Loudon, was named by the Father of 

 Botany, Linnaeus, in honor of George Joseph Kamel or Camellus, a 

 Jesuit. There is a beautiful fitness in the name for such a beautiful 

 plant. The Jesuit is considered by the body of men whose cause 

 he upholds, their ornament and their pride — the Camellia is 

 considered by the admirers of flowers as one of their choicest objects 

 of admiration. It is a native of Japan and China, though more 

 common in the former than in the latter. There it grows to a very 

 lofty tree, and is planted everywhere in their gardens for ornament 

 — and in their groves and walks for shade and shelter. It must be 

 a beautiful sight to see an avenue of Camellias as large as silver ma- 

 ples, with their deep glossy foliage and flowers of every hue, from 

 the purest white to the richest crimson. Still though we may envy 

 the Japanese the magnificence of their specimens, we may well be 

 proud of the innumerable fine and splendid varieties which our su- 

 perior skill in horticulture has produced. In China it is also exten- 

 sively cultivated, and most of the varieties originally in cultivation 

 were imported from there. The date of its introduction to England 

 is recorded as 1739, and I presume that for a long time afterwards 

 the number of varieties was very limited. In one of the most po- 

 pular histories of gardening, published in 1800, I find, in a history 

 and description of the plant, the mere notice that " There are varie- 

 ties of it in cultivation with single red and purple flowers, with 

 double red and purple flowers, with single white flowers, and double 

 white flowers;" from which comparatively brief notice I conclude 

 that there were very few varieties, and these little known or cared 

 for at that time. Most of those introduced from China at that time 

 were received between that period and 1820, after which many fine 

 seedlings were let out by the English nurserymen. About this pe- 

 riod, Chandler, of Vauxhall, near London, began to establish himself 

 as the greatest grower and raiser of new kinds of the age; he pub- 

 lished figures of his new kinds as they appeared ; one of the first 

 was eximia, and so great has been the change, so rapid the improve- 

 ment, that it is very rarely indeed that we can find a plant in any 

 collection. I have met lately with one single plant in an extensive 



