524 Description of the Species of Camellia and Thea. 



having a greater number of petals, it is unnecessary for me to 

 make a separate article of its description. 



II. Camellia oleifera. 

 Oil-Seed Camellia. 



C. oleifera ; foliis ellipticis utrinque acutis argute serratis subtus subaveniis, 

 petalis bilobis, sepalis deciduis. Lindley, in Botanical Register, fol. 492. 



This species has been overlooked by M. Decandolle in 

 his Prodromus. It is the Oil-seed Tree of the Chinese, 

 who cultivate it, according to Dr. Abel, in large plantations, 

 for the sake of the excellent oil which they obtain from it in 

 abundance by a very easy process, and use for various do- 

 mestic purposes. It is called by them Tcha-Yeoa, which may 

 be interpreted the " Oil-bearing Tea Plant ;" a very ex- 

 pressive name, as the plant in appearance closely resembles 

 the Tea. This author has given a good figure of it in the 

 Narrative of his Journey in China, p. 174, App. 363, and 

 states that it naturally grows in a red sort of soil, and will 

 thrive where scarcely any other plants will succeed. It was 

 sometimes found by him of the magnitude of a moderately 

 sized Cherry-tree, and almost always that of a large shrub, 

 from six to eight feet in height, and bearing a profusion of 

 single white blossoms. This circumstance gave an interest- 

 ing and novel character to the places which it covered. They 

 often looked in the distance as if lightly covered with snow ; 

 but, on a nearer approach, exhibited one immense garden. 

 It is said to have been first introduced by Lord Macartney's 

 Embassy, but was afterwards lost until 1820, when Captain 

 Nesbitt, of the Honourable East India Company's service, 

 imported plants of it in the ship Essex, for the Horticultural 

 Society, by whom it has been largely distributed. 



