WILD AND SINGLE CAMELLIAS. 



3°3 



Large- flowered Camellia (C. reticu- 

 lata). — The finest of all Camellias, with large 

 flowers of soft rich rose, 6 or 7 inches across, 

 the petals beautifully folded into semi-double 

 form. Being difficult of increase it is not a 

 common plant, though one of the best that can 

 be grown in a cool greenhouse ; it is of stronger 

 growth and looser habit than other Camellias 

 and easily known by its dull closely-veined 

 leaves instead of the shining leathery leaves of 

 other kinds. The flowers vary a good deal in 

 fulness of petal, some being nearly single with 

 showy golden stamens, and others as nearly full, 

 and both forms often grow on the same bush ; 

 young plants of only 2 to 3 feet are free in 



habit. Small leaves of deep glossy green and 

 finely toothed, with single flowers of bright 

 rose, 1 J5 inches across, coming from December 

 to March. It is not often seen in private gar- 

 dens but flowers regularly in the temperate 

 house at Kew. A double-flowered form of this 

 is known as the Apple-flowered Camellia (var. 

 malijiord). China and Japan. 



Banks' Camellia (C Sasanqua). — A 

 charming shrub, common in China and Japan, 

 where its finer forms are much grown and pre- 

 ferred to any other kind. The wild plant bears 

 small single flowers, and always white, but cul- 

 tivation has produced larger single and double 

 flowers in many shades of colour, even ap- 



CAMELLIA SASANQUA \ SEMI-DOUBLE FORM. 

 (Engraved for "Flora" from a plant in the Royal Exotic Nursery, Chelsea.) 



flower and beautiful for the conservatory. In 

 the south-west of Britain and Ireland this beau- 

 tiful tree succeeds in the open, but elsewhere 

 it is tender and sensitive to harsh winds, from 

 which shade and shelter might perhaps save it. 

 Even in Cornwall and Devon it is mostly grown 

 upon walls, though at Scorrier and a few other 

 places there are trees out in the open. Probably 

 the largest of all is one growing at Creg, near 

 Fermoy, co. Cork, which carries a head 60 feet 

 round and is one sheet of flower in its season of 

 beauty. 



Rose-flowered Camellia ( G.rosaflord) . — 

 A shrub coming very near C. Sasanqua, but of 

 smaller growth and looser and more straggling 



proaching scarlet and red-purple. It grows 

 sometimes as a low bush but oftener as a loose 

 straggling shrub, bearing small leaves of deep 

 glossy green with fine rounded teeth ; it flowers 

 in winter, and from growing upon the moun- 

 tain tops in bleak spots the plant is very hardy. 

 This fact and its loose growth make it well 

 suited to open walls in this country, where in 

 warm aspects it sets its buds freely, flowering 

 from November into the new year. The flowers 

 are beautiful for cutting, and so finely formed 

 that even in the double kinds there is no stiff- 

 ness, whilesuch is theirfragrance that the dried 

 petals are used by the Chinese to scent their 

 teas. This kind is more easily raised from cut- 



