Book II. 



CAMELLIA. 



909 



6608. Propagation. A number of the sorts ripen their seeds in this country, and may be so propagated ; 

 but the greater number are struck from cuttings, and some few, as E. massoni, retorta, petiolata, &c., by 

 layers, which require two years to throw out roots. The seeds are often imported from the Cape, and 

 arrive in winter : they should be sown early in the spring following, in frames filled with equal parts of 

 peat and sand, very thinly covered, placed in the shade, and bell-glasses placed over them. The soil must 

 be kept moderately moist by gentle waterings : they will in general come up in six weeks or three months, 

 and may then be kept close to the glass in the heathery, or in a frame or \nt till autumn, when they may 

 be potted off. Seeds which are saved in this country may be sown as soon as gathered, if they ripen before 

 September, but after that period it will be better to preserve them till next spring; as the plants produced 

 from them would not be sufficiently advanced to endure the winter. Gushing {Exotic Gard. 74.) prefers a 

 September sowing, because he finds the plants will stand the winter in the seed-pot better than those that 

 have been raised early in spring, and transplanted in autumn into single pots. Ample directions for strik- 

 ing heaths will be found in Cushing's Exotic Gardener, who observes, that cultivators failed at first by 

 planting large cuttings of ripened wood, instead of taking only the points of the fresh shoot. The true 

 method, he considers, of propagating heaths was first discovered in the Hammersmith nursery, and the 

 following abstract of the practice there is from Page's Prodromus. " About the month of June, or as soon 

 as the plant has made fresh shoots, cut off' the extreme points about an inch long or less, according as the 

 sort may afford, but always in the fresh shoot ; take off' the leaves from the lower part, as far as it is to be 

 put in the sand, without injuring the shoot ; this is rather a nice operation, and should be done with a 

 sharp penknife, for the least bruise spoils the cutting. Dibble them into a pot, filled with moistened com- 

 mon white house-sand, before they have time to flag; when they are all planted, water the whole to fix 

 them still better; let the moisture a little subside, then cover them with a small bell-glass, fitted within 

 the rim of the pot, and place them in the shade on a spent hot-bed, keeping them close till rooted, which 

 will, with the free sorts, take place in about two months : when rooted, which is known by their shooting, 

 take off" the small glass, for about a week, at night, previous to its total removal. They will be fit to pot 

 off in March the ensuing year." 



6609. Henderson of Woodhall's mode of striking ericas is as follows : — "The month of July is a good time 

 for putting in most of these cuttings ; but the cuttings must not be taken off till the young wood be firm. 

 Cuttings of ericas may be put in at any time when the wood is in a proper state. Take the cuttings off the 

 plants about three quarters of an inch long, pulling them off" downwards ; strip off" the leaves nearly half 

 the length of the cuttings ; place the cutting on the nail of the thumb, and, with a shai-p knife, at right 

 angles, cut off" the small end close to the joint, or place where it was pulled off' the plant. Having done 

 this, plant them into a pot filled with small pit or river sand, giving them a good watering to settle the 

 sand about them. Set them on a shelf where they are a little shaded ; cover them with glasses, and notice 

 to keep the sand always moist. Some of these sorts will be well rooted in three months, and others will 

 require six months." [Caled. Mem. iu. 323.) Henderson keeps his ericas, at all times, cool and airy; 

 " opening the glasses in winter when there is no frost, and letting the wind blow on them, and using 

 no fire but in time of frost. Never," he says, " shift any plant till the pot is quite full of roots. When 

 the plants get large, several of them will continue in good health for three or four years without shifting, 

 and flower well. I have plants of erica retorta here, in pots seven inches in diameter, which are very 

 bushy, being eighteen inches across, and fourteen inches high above the pot ; erica infundibuliformis, two 

 and a half feet in diameter, and two feet nine inches high ; erica pilosa, betwixt five and six feet high, and 

 three feet across, in pots eleven inches in diameter : these have not been shifted for five years, and are in 

 high health, and covered with strong fine flowers from the mouth of the pot to the top of the plant.'* 

 {Caled. Mem. iii. 327.) 



6610. Culture. " A prejudice," Page observes, " having spread that the culture of these plants is diffi- 

 cult, one of the greatest ornaments of the green-house has hence, of late, been neglected; although the 

 method of culture is as easy, and nearly as certain, as that of the geranium, but requiring a little more de- 

 licacy in the execution." The soil for all the species is peat-earth mixed witli from one sixth to one fourth 

 of fine white sand. The pots should be well drained and rather small ; but large, in proportion to the size 

 of the plants. Heaths thrive best in a house by themselves, and placed as close to the glass as possible, 

 without risk from frosts : they do not require so much heat as most green-house plants, but abundance of 

 air, and, above all, great regularity as to water, so as to preserve, as much as possible, an equable and moo 

 derate degree of moisture about their roots. The mass of mould being once thoroughly dried, the plant 

 is irrecoverably lost ; and it is equally so, though the opei-ation goes on with less rapidity, if the pot is kept 

 in a pan of water. No kind of plant is more injured by being kept in a chamber than heath, nor will they 

 thrive in a green-house or in the open air, within the influence of the smoke of large towns. In the best 

 situations and under the best management, many of the species are short-lived, and therefore require to 

 be frequently renewed by cuttings or seed. . " ' ^ 



6611. The ericas are not subject to insects. Henderson says " I have never had any insect on them except 

 the green fly. The old grandiflora is the only one with me that has been attacked. I destroyed the flies 

 by dipping the plant into an infusion of tobacco. The ericas, I find, do not agree well with being smoked 

 with tobacco-paper in the usual way." {lb. iii. 327.) 



SuBSECT. 3. Camellia. — Camellia and Thea, W. Monad. Polyaml. L. and Aurantice, J. 



6612. Of the camellia genus there are four species introduced : the C. bohea, viridis, and 

 sasanqua, are the plants whose leaves furnish the tea imported from China ; C. japonica, 

 introduced in 1739, is an ornamental evergreen shrub, which grows to the size of a low 

 tree in China, with dark-green ovate leaves, on short petioles, and flowers red, white, 

 striped, and variegated, and single, semi-double, and double, without fragrance, but of 

 great splendor and beauty, and peculiarly valuable, as appearing in December, January, 

 and February. 



6613. Varieties. These are — 



There are above half a dozen other sorts, 

 procured from seed, which are not yet 

 named, and many hybrids have not yet 

 come into flower. 



White ; the single, semi-double, double, I pink, buft; lonjt-leaved, striped-leaved, 



double w)iiteAvaratah,VVillbank's white, I myrtle-leaved. Lady Hume's, Greville's 



- fimbriated white, and spotted-leaved. I coronet, six-angled, and waratah. 



Red ; the single, semi-double, double, I Red and tvliite ; the striped, double, semi- 

 pale, dark, large, paeony, pompone, | double, variegated, and spotted-leaved. 



6614. Propagation. The single red camellia is propagated by cuttings, layers, and seeds, for stocks ; and 

 on these the other sorts are generally inarched, and sometimes budded or grafted. The cuttings are formed 

 of ripened shoots of the preceding summer, which are taken off" in August, cut smoothly across at a joint 

 or bud, two or three of the lower leaves only taken off, and the cuttings then planted and made firm with a 

 small dibber, in pans of sand or loam, or, by some cultivators, sand and peat, or sand alone. The pans are 

 kept hi a pit or cold-frame, without being covered with glasses, but shaded during powerful sunshine ; and 

 in the following spring such as are struck will begin to push, when they are to be placed in a gentle heat. 

 In September or October following, the rooted plants will be fit to pot off"; and in the second or third 

 spring they may be used as stocks. Henderson puts in camellia-cuttings at any time of the year, except- 

 ing when they are making young wood. He puts fifty cuttings in a pot of sand eight inches in diameter, 

 sets them in a cool place in the back of a vinery or peach-house for a month or six weeks, and then plunges 



