THE CAMELLIA AS A WALL PLANT. 
505 
would be safe to expose entirely, plants of 
their degree of hardiness to our common spring 
climate, yet the protection afforded by close 
contact with the wall will be then sufficient 
to preserve them. 
Soil. — Whenever tender exotics, no matter 
what their degree of tenderness may be, are 
submitted to a course of treatment by which 
they are supposed to acquire a greater degree 
of hardiness than is usually attributed to 
them, the manner in which the soil is pre- 
pared for their roots is of the first degree of 
importance. The proper mode of preparation 
is thus : — In the first place, if against a wall 
or building, see that there is no drip falls 
near enough to render the soil wet, nor any 
leakage from drains or other sources that 
would produce a like effect. Then take out 
the original soil from a space three feet wide 
and a foot in depth at the front, and six 
inches next the wall, so as to have the bottom 
sloping outwai'ds. On this ram down firmly 
an even layer of six inches of concrete, 
formed of lime and coarse gritty sand, or of 
clay. In the front, of course, there must be 
egress for the water which this concrete 
intercepts in its downward passage. On the 
concrete lay six inches of roughish brick 
rubble, broken into lumps as large as eggs, or 
larger ; this will bring up the front to the 
original level, and the back six inches higher ; 
next place a layer of one thickness of turf 
all over, and on this six inches of rough turfy 
loam and peat, three parts of the former to 
one of the latter ; then one foot of good com- 
post, made of three parts turfy loam, one part 
peat, and enough rough gritty sand, added 
to make the whole porous. The soil will 
thus form a sloping border, about a foot 
and a half higher than the ordinary level at 
the front edge, compounded as follows : — 
six inches of concrete ; six inches of rubble ; 
a layer of turf ; six inches of rough soil ; 
twelve inches of compost. All the ingredients 
of the soil should be in a good workable con- 
dition, neither wet nor dry, but in a medium 
state of moistness. 
Protection. — This necessarily includes two 
considerations, — the preservation of the roots, 
and the preservation of the branches ; the 
former is most important in the autumn, and 
thence onward through the winter ; the latter 
from the commencement of severe frosts, as 
long as they continue. 
A very good and cheap material for pro- 
tecting the roots is dry sawdust, spread over 
the soil to the depth of six inches, and rather 
more about the base of the plants ; this should 
be put on before the soil gets soaked with 
rain in the autumn. The same thickness of 
tree leaves would also form an efficient pro- 
tection ; or if neither of these are convenient, 
almost any other material will do, such as 
dry litter, or fern, or old tan, or coal ashes. 
Another material, easily obtainable in the 
country, very efficient, and available for com- 
posts when required no longer for this pur- 
pose, are thin turves of green-sward, about a 
foot or rather more in diameter, cut and dried 
in summer, and when used laid over a thin 
layer of leaves or litter, in the manner of 
roofing tiles, beginning at the outer edge. 
For the tops, various means of protection 
may also be made use of. In these days of 
cheap glass, those who choose to excel in 
these matters might have glass sashes made to 
lean against the wall, to be placed there per- 
manently for the winter season. In extremely 
severe weather, a mat or so in addition would 
afford protection enough. What would be 
equally efficient would be a frame work 
thatched with straw or fern, and set before 
the plants ; but as this would exclude light, 
it would be desirable to remove it during 
the day in all fine dry weather, replacing it 
again at night. In any case these covers 
will be all the more efficient if large enough 
to stand over the principal part of the border 
as well as the plants. Where neither of these 
plans can he adopted, mats may be nailed 
over the plants — a single mat in thickness in 
ordinary frosts, and two mats in more severe 
weather ; they should be so contrived as to 
admit of being opened and turned back off 
the plants during fine weather. 
The few other particulars of treatment 
required need not be enlarged on. They con- 
sist of such operations as the proper training 
and thinning where necessary of the branches ; 
early thinning of the flower buds where they 
grow in clusters ; watex'ing in very dry 
weather during the earlier part of summer ; 
and such like routine matters. 
We may be asked, why recommend the 
growth of Camellias under such circum- 
stances as these, when they can be had in 
greater perfection in other departments of the 
garden ? In the first place, many may grow 
them this way who cannot, because they have 
not the means, grow them in any other. In 
the second place, those whose means enable 
them to grow them to greater perfection in 
their greenhouses, may thus have their sea- 
son of blooming extended, and so secure a 
greater variety among their out-door plants. 
There is, in fact, no good reason why those who 
choose to grow Camellias in situations such as 
that which has been described, should not do 
so if they please. We have seen sneers at the 
mention of Camellias as shrubs in the open 
borders, because " they are so inferior to the 
plants in-doors ;" but we have also seen very 
interesting plants thus grown within the 
county of Surrey, and these plants have pro- 
