CAMELLIA. 



55 



CAMELLIA. 



The Camellia belongs to the same natural order 

 of plants as the Bohea and Viridis which supply 

 the well-known black and green teas of commerce, 

 and is named in honor of George J. Camellus, a 

 Moravian Jesuit, and traveler in Asia. It is a 

 native of China and Japan, from whence it was in- 

 troduced into English gardens about the year 1739, 

 and perseveringly experimented upon for more than 

 a century before its cultivation was thoroughly un- 

 derstood. 



The Camellia Japonica y or Japan Rose, is a lofty 

 tree in its native country, a beautiful feature of 

 oriental landscape, and a splendid flowering shrub 

 with us. Its blossoms vary from white to red and 

 resemble the rose, but want its fragrance. It is 

 universally admired for the magnificence and dura- 

 tion of its flowers and its dark-green, glossy, 

 laurel-like leaves. There are more than three 

 hundred varieties. The double white is the most 

 valuable for winter blooming. 



Camellias are grown by florists of large cities to 

 an astonishing extent, and are the most important 

 of all flowers used in the construction of bouquets. 

 A cool, damp atmosphere is so essential to their 

 successful cultivation that they cannot be generally 

 attempted in living rooms, yet the treatment of so 

 important a plant cannot well be omitted from any 

 work on flowers. 



