109 



THE CAMELLIA HOUSE. 



The Camellia House, which, besides this splendid gen as of flowering 

 plants, might contain the magnificent Nepal Rhododendrons, the best 

 varieties of tender English hybrids, as well as the Chinese Magnolias, 

 whose rich perfume would amply make up for the absence of fragrance in 

 the two former genera, as well as some other plants of kindred habits. 

 Of the genus Camellia, there are in this country at present, six species, and 

 above two hundred varieties ; and the collections of these plants on the 

 continent are still more extensive. We have seen in one collection alone, 

 that of M. Makoy, of Liege, in Belgium, above two hundred and twenty 

 varieties of greater or less merit ; and in the collection of M. Parmentier, 

 of Enghien, in the same country, no less than four hundi-ed varieties. 

 There appears to be at present quite a mania on the continent for increas- 

 ing the number of varieties of this plant, and in this, as in most similar 

 cases, many varieties scarcely differ from each other, certainly not so mueh 

 as to induce us to recommend above one third of the number for general 

 purposes. 



Few plants are more easily cultivated than the Camellia, particularly 

 when they are grown in a house by themselves ; and few plants are so 

 universally admired. Many persons are, we beheve, deterred from cul- 

 tivating CameUias from an erroneous supposition that they require the 

 accommodation of a conservatory or greenhouse, and cannot be grown 

 without ; — than this, nothing is more absurd, for not only can CameUias 

 be cultivated in great perfection in pits or frames, protected merely by the 

 glass lights ; and occasionally, in the most severe weather, by a mat thrown 

 over them ; but they are also found to thrive exceedingly well when planted 

 out in a warm and well-sheltered border, or shrubbery ; without any pro- 

 tection whatever excepting a little dry fern, moss, or Utter, laid over the 

 ground in which they are planted. Certainly, to have CamelUas in the 

 first degree of exceUence they should be kept in a glass house, but that 

 they wUl flower and grow weU in the open air, in favourable situa- 

 tions, is also certain ; and the day may not be far distant when the 

 CamelUa wUl be found as much the ornament of our shrubberies as the 

 Pyrus japonica, Corchorus japonica, Ancuba japonica, and other plants 

 from the same countiT, and which were aU witliin ourrecoUcction, treated 



