358 On the Cultivation of the Camellia. 
at all seasons, whether it be in blossom or not, excites our admira- 
tion. During the summer and early winter months, we are pleased with 
its bold and elegant form, and with the deep glossy hue of its beautiful 
foliage ; whilst from Christmas to May, the various varieties delight and 
charm by their fine and showy flowers, of white, buff, striped, and red, 
of every shade, from the deep crimson to the soft tint of the maiden's 
blush. The Camellia may in truth be called, "the most beautiful of the 
beautiful," for what, in the whole range of our exotic flora, is more 
beautiful than a fine specimen of the Old Double White, having, perhaps, 
one or two dozens of splendid blossoms fully expanded ? or what more 
delicate than the bloom of C. sasdnqua, now called C. malijldra ? The 
Old Single Red, Cj^pdmca, appears to have been introduced into Eng- 
land, in the year 1739 ; and according to Messrs. Chandler and Booth's 
Camellise, the Old Double White was brought to England in 1792, by 
Sir John Slater, of the East India House ; and the Old Double Red im- 
ported in 1794, by Sir Robert Preston, of Vallyfield : since which time, 
many fine varieties have been imported from China, and many fine seed- 
lings have also been raised in this country, within the last few years, 
more particularly at the Vauxhall Nursery. The names of one hundred 
and fifty, or one hundred and eighty varieties, might now be collected 
from the various catalogues of the London nurserymen, but nearly two- 
thirds are unworthy of notice, and many are mere repetitions of eachother. 
Stocks, upon which to inarch, graft, or bud, the double sorts, are ob- 
tained from cuttings of , the Single Red : the cuttings may be taken at 
any period, after the wood of the present year is ripe. They should be 
planted in pots of fine white sand, about forty or fifty cuttings to a pot 
of eight inches diameter; the pots should be well drained, being nearly 
half filled with pieces of broken pot. Two or three leaves should be 
left upon each cutting, at least, no more must be removed than is abso- 
lutely necessary to allow of the cutting being firmly fixed in the sand. 
After the pots are filled they should be placed in a shady part of the 
greenhouse for five or six weeks, and then, if convenient, they ought to 
be plunged in a gentle hotbed ; — a bark bed will do, but not quite so well. 
By their thus having bottom heat they will strike root in one half the 
time they would do, if left in the house. As soon as rooted they should 
be potted off into small pots, and afterwards kept, if possible in a hot- 
bed or hothouse, where they will make fine strong wood, and be fit for 
use in fifteen or eighteen months. 
Inarching, or grafting by approach, [fig. 54 a] is generally resorted to 
for the propagation of the Double Camellias; and not unfrequently, 
grafting* or budding. The former is by far the safest, and may be per- 
* When it is inconvenient to inarch in tlie usual way, the best method of grafting, is that 
adopted a few years ago, by Mr. Pike, Gardener to W. I. Brereton, Esq., of Brinton, Norl'olk, 
and noticed in the Gardener's Magazine, vol. 2, p. 33. It is, detaching a shoot from a plant, 
of the kind intended to be propagated, and inarchin.g it upon a single stock, leaving a piece at 
the bottom of the cutting, sufficiently long to thrust in a phial, [fig. 54 i] kept constantly su]). 
plied with water.— CONDCCTORS. 
