By Mr. William Beattie Booth. 523 



C. Sasanqua, and thus speaks of it : "A plant very like the 

 Tea flourished on the sides and very tops of mountains. The 

 Chinese call this plant Cha-whaw, or flower of Tea, on ac- 

 count of the resemblance of one to the other, and because 

 the petals are sometimes mixed among the Teas in order to 

 increase their fragrance." This plant, he further adds, is the 

 Camellia Sasanqua of the Botanists. From the similarity in 

 the sound of the Chinese name given to it by Sir George 

 Staunton, and by Loureiro, it is perhaps not too much to 

 suppose that they are both intended to apply to the same 

 plant. 



Thunberg's figure represents it with only five petals 

 (Thunb. Flora Japon. t. xxx. p. 273,) and in his description 

 he says, " Corolla of 5 petals, rarely 6 or 7 ;" but the flowers 

 that are produced upon the plants in this country have always 

 more than 5 petals, indeed they may be said to be semi- 

 double. This however is probably owing to cultivation, as 

 in every other respect, except that I have just noticed, his 

 description agrees with this plant. Other figures have been 

 published of it in Curtis's Monograph, fol. 1, and in Lod- 

 diges's Botanical Cabinet, 1. 1275. 



I may here mention, that among the Chinese drawings in 

 the collection of the Society, there is a representation of this 

 Camellia with the flowers perfectly double, like those of the 

 White Rosa Banksia. In 1823, a plant of this variety was 

 imported for the Society by Captain Drummond, which pro- 

 duced its flowers in the garden at Chiswick, in December, 

 1826. A figure and description of it will be found in the 

 Botanical Register, folio 1091. As it differs in no respect 

 from the plant I have here described, excepting in the flowers 



