Order VII. MONADELPHIA POLYANDRIA. 
9953 Leaves ovate-oblong bluntly serrated. Flowers terminal subsolitary. Petals obcordate 
995-1- Leaves ovate acuminate acutely serrate, Flowers terminal subsolitary 
595 
and Miscellaneous Particulars 
China as in Japan, and much cultivated in both countries. It is of frequent occurrence in Chinese paintings, 
with Hibiscus and Chrysanthemum, two of their great favorites. There are several varieties of C. japonica 
in China, most of which have been imported here, and their number considerably increased, and daily in- 
creasing, from seedlings raised in this country. The double w hite, double striped, and double Waratah, (from 
the central petals resembling those of the Waratah plant of New Holland, Telopea speciosissima,) are con- 
sidered the grandest and most marked varieties, and are also free-growers and flowerers ; the pseony-flowered 
and fringed white, are also standard beauties ; but all are much admired. 
The single red Camellia is propagated by cuttings, layers, and seeils, for stocks ; and on these the other sorts 
are generally inarched, and sometimes budded or grafted. The cuttings are formed of ripened or rii)ening 
shoots, taken off in August, cut smoothly across at a joint or bud, two or three of the lower leaves only taken 
off, and the cuttings then planted and made firm with a small dibber, in pans of sand or loam, or, by some 
cultivators, sand and peat, or sand alone. The pans are kept in a pit or cold frame, without being covered with 
glass, but shaded during powerful sunshine ; and in the following spring such as are struck will begin to push, 
when they are to be placed in a gentle heat. In September or October following, the rooted plants will be fit 
to pot offj and in the second or third spring they may be used as stocks Such is the practice in the London 
nurseries. Henderson, of Woodhall, near Edinburgh, puts in Camellia cuttings at any time of the year, 
excepting when they are making young wood. He puts fifty cuttings in a pot of sand eight inches in diameter, 
sets them in a cool place in the back of a vinery or peach-house for a month or six weeks, and then plunges 
them to the brim in a hot-bed where is a little bottom heat. A speedy mode of obtaining stocks is by planting 
stools in a pit devoted to that purpose, and laying them in autumn ; the following autumn most of the layers 
will have produced roots, when they may be taken oft' and potted, and used as stocks in the succeeding spring. 
Inarching or grafting is performed early in spring, when the plants begin to grow ; the chief care requisite is 
so to place and fix the pot containing the stock, as that it may not be disturbed during the connection of the 
scion with the parent plant. The graft being clayed over, is then covered with moss to prevent its cracking. 
When independent grafting is resorted to, the mode called side grafting is often used ; but the operation of 
tongueing is generally omitted, as weakening the stock and unnecessary, with a view to prevent the scion 
from being blown off. A few seeds are sometimes obtained from the single red and semi-double Camellias, 
and from the single Waratah j these require two years to come up, but make the best stocks of any. 
Before they are grafted they are often allowed to come into flower, in case some new variety should be pro- 
duced; but the best cultivators, as Messrs. Loddiges, Sweet, and Mackay, regularly cross-impregnate the 
blossoms in Knight's manner, by cutting out the stamens before the anthers are mature, and when the stigma 
is in a proper state, dusting it with the pollen of the species or variety intended as the male parent. 
C. Sasanqua seeds most readily, and is mostly employed as the female parent for raising new varieties. The 
plants, if well treated, flower in four or five years, and if nothing new is produced they still make excellent 
stocks. 
Some cultivators grow the Camellias chiefly in peat. Messrs. Loddiges, who have the most numerous 
collection of this genus, formerly used loam, with a little sand and peat ; and they are grown in a sim'.Iar 
soil in Hammersmith nursery. Of late, Messrs. Loddiges find light loam alone to answer as well or better. In 
the Comte de Vandes garden at Bayswater, rotten dung is mixed with loam and peat. Sweet recommends 
sandy loam and neat. Henderson of Woodhall is one of the most successful growers of the Camellia in 
Scotland : his compost is as follows : take one part of light-brown mould, one part of river-sand, one part of 
peat-earth, one half part rotten leaves ; mix them all well together, and when the Camellias require shifting, 
put some broken coal-char in the bottom of the pots, and some dry moss or hypnum over it. {Caled. Mem. 
iii. 316.) 
Camellias have the best efRx;t, and are grown to most advantage in a house entirely devoted to them. Such 
Qq 2 
