PLANTS FOR WINDOW GARDENING. 



17 



THE CAMELLIA 



The camellia is a native of China or Japan, from whence 

 it was introduced to British gardens about the year 1739. 

 The name was given in honor of Father Kamel, a Mora- 

 vian priest, whose name, Latinized, became Camellus. 



The plants first introduced were fairly killed by kind- 

 ness ; an error not unfrequently repeated in our day with 

 newly-discovered plants. They were planted in a stove, 

 where the extreme heat soon dried the leaves and parched 

 the plant. We find no further mention of the plant till 

 1792, when the single red variety (Camellia Japonica) was 

 introduced, and flowered profusely in a common green- 

 house ; during the next year many plants of this variety 

 were obtained from China ; next we find mention of the 

 double red ; soon after, the fringed double white, and many 

 varieties too numerous to mention. Strange to say, the 

 single white was not imported till about the year 1820, and 

 even now it is not common, though a showy and free- 

 blooming variety. 



The camellia, in its native country, is a shrub or small 



tree, though Mr. Fortune mentions specimens of the single 



red as sometimes exceeding twenty feet in height, with 

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