ON THE PROPAGATION OF CAMELLIAS. 
Ill 
If we refer to the comprehensive article on the culture of the Camellia^ com- 
mencing vol. i. p. 33 of the Magazine of Botany, it might appear superfluous to 
make any further observations on the subject. But nevertheless something may 
be added, and a few inaccuracies, or at least inadvertencies, corrected. We shall 
attempt to render that able paper more complete, and hope to point out one method 
of propagation which is very little known. 
First as 'to stocks, it is unquestionable that the single red' Camellias usually 
make the best stocks, as asserted at No. 16, p. 35 ; it is true, also, that Cuttings 
of the young ripe wood can be put in, either in the spring, in heat, or in the cold 
frame, in November, when a callus is gradually produced which is the precursor of 
roots that, by the aid of a little moist heat in March, or April, following, will be 
developed. But a great improvement appears to consist in rejecting pots altogether 
for striking Camellias. 
A gentle hotbed, or the bed of a small propagation-house, wherein a heat of not 
more than 60 or 63 degrees, by fire or hot-water, is maintained, ofl'ers the best 
means to raise a stock of young Camellias. We prefer the latter, and shall attempt 
to describe what w^e witnessed. The house is about fifteen feet long, and ten feet 
or more wide ; it has a front and one end light ; the slope of the sashes is not abovo 
25 degrees by the French scale, or 65 degrees by that of the English gardeners, 
(see vol. i. p. 257). In this house there is a central pit, to contain four feet of tan, 
or hot leaves. One end abuts against the north wall — a walk goes round the back, 
front, and south end of the pit ; the aspect of the house appears to be about east, 
and it is heated by hot-water pipes. Over the tan of the pit, earth is placed of a 
quality suited to the nature of the plants to be raised ; for the Camellia, reduced 
turfy loam, and sandy, black heath mould, mixed in the proportion of two parts of 
the latter to one of the former, form the best medium, and should be laid at least 
three inches deep, and covered with an inch of pure white siliceous sand. Nursery- 
men thus raise Camellias from cuttings by hundreds ; but we will presume that the 
amateur propagator has two or three dozens of cuttings to operate upon ; and that 
he possesses a propagation-house constructed in a way not remotely different in 
principle from that we have alluded to. 
A clean and well-glazed hand-glass, quite free from flaw or crack, should be 
pressed on the sand, so as to leave its mark ; the sand being previously made com- 
pactly firm with water. A number of cuttings, of the ripe young wood, are then 
to be made ready, and inserted at convenient distances, two points deep, holes being 
made and nearly filled with writing sand. Each cutting is to be fixed very firm 
by working about its heel and pressing with the setting-stick. No leaf is to be let 
into the earth, but not one is to be removed the base of whose footstalk will remain 
above the surface. Water must then be given freely through a fine rose, or by 
flirting it on with a hair-brush, and when the leaves become rather dry, the hand- 
glass is to be placed over the cuttings, pressing it down, so that its lower edge may 
pass into the wet sand, and completely exclude the air. Success will mainly 
