house. They will soon begin to make young wood. From the time they begin to make their young 
shoots till they have finished their growth give them plenty of water. They may be kept in the vinery or 
peach-house until they have formed their flower-buds, when a few of them may be removed to a colder 
place, such as behind the stage of a green-house, for the Camellias are fond of being shaded during strong 
sunshine. In three or four weeks after, a few more of the Camellias may be brought out of the peach- 
house, and put into a colder situation. This may be repeated three or four times, which will make as 
many different successions of flowering. Those that are wanted to come into flower early, may remain in 
the warm house until they are beginning to flower, when they should be taken to a cold place, as the coldest 
place in the green-house, then give them plenty of light only, and they will open their flowers well, and 
stand long. A Camellia cannot stand heat when in flower ; indeed they seldom open their flowers well in 
heat, at all events the flowers soon fall off. Those that are kept all the summer in the vinery will come 
into flower by the 1st or middle of October, and a pretty large plant, having perhaps 50 or 100 flower- 
buds, will continue in flower till the month of January. 
Had the Camellia, says the author of the “ Flora Domestica,” been a Greek, or Italian, or English 
plant, there would have been a great deal said of it by poets and lovers ; and doubtless it makes a figure in 
the poetry of Japan. But, unfortunately for our quotations, though perhaps fortunately for their own com- 
fort, the Japanese have hitherto had most of their good things to themselves. Their country would lay 
open a fine field for the botanist. See an interesting account of this apparently intelligent and amiable 
people in Golownin’s Narrative of his Captivity among them. 
There are two superb collections of the Camellia Japonica open to the public : one at Vauxhall, the 
other at Hackney. 
In Japan an oil is expressed from the seeds of this plant which is constantly used in preparing food. 
The species called the Camellia Sasanqua is a small shrub, so exactly like the tea-shrub, both in leaf 
and blossom, that they are not readily distinguished but by their size. The leaves have a pleasing scent, 
and, after being boiled, are ..used by the Japanese ladies to wash their hair. They are likewise sometimes 
mixed with the tea leaves to make their scent yet more agreeable. 
Sheep-shearing, says Mr. Howittin his account of June, begun last month, is generally completed in 
this. It is one of the most picturesque operations of rural life, and, from the most ancient times, it has been 
regarded as a season of gladness and festivity. The simple and unvitiated sense of mankind taught them, in the 
earlier ages of society, that the bounty of Nature was to be gathered in with thankfulness, and in a spirit like 
that of the Great Giver, a spirit of blessing and benevolence. Therefore did they join with the brightness and 
beauty of the summer the sunshine of their grateful souls, and collect with mirth and feasting the harvests 
of the field, of the forest, and of the flock. The very spirits of the churlish, the hard and unkindly natures 
of the “sons of Belial,” gave way before the united influence of the fair and plentiful time and of natural 
religion, so far as to feast their servants. The Bible, that treasury of the Customs of antient nations, gives 
a most lively picture of their practice in this particular. Nabal, u a man in Maon, whose possessions were 
in Carmel, and who had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, was shearing his sheep in Carmel,” 
when David knowing it to be a time of abundance, sent some of his men out of the wilderness to solicit 
provisions. The men, when delivering their leader’s message, used it as an argument, “ for we are come in 
a good day.” 
The Camellia Japonica is the emblem of unpretending excellence. 
