March 15, 1883. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 209 
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Exhibition of Horticultural Appliances, Agricultural Hall, 
[Islington. 
Palm Sunday. 
Liverpool Spring Show (two days). 
CAMELLIAS. 
Loses are amougst deciduous slirubs 
Camellias are amongst evergreens—the 
most handsome and admired of all. They 
are no doubt less gorgeous than Rhodo¬ 
dendrons, but with these they cannot 
properly be compared, as the latter are 
essentially grown in the open air for summer 
decoration, while Camellias are in most dis¬ 
tricts exclusively flowered under glass in winter 
and spring. In some favoured localities they 
thrive in the open air, and are doubtless as 
hardy as common Laurels. They are too valuable, 
however, to be subjected to such risks as commoner 
shrubs, therefore for all practical purposes Camellias 
are greenhouse and conservatory plants, and undeniably 
of the first order of merit. They are, in fact, indis¬ 
pensable wherever high-class decorative plants are 
grown. They are adapted, too, for glass structures of 
all sizes, attaining on the one hand the character of 
trees, yet retaining their youthful vigour; while, on 
the other, they flower in quite a small state as freely 
as do the older and larger specimens. They are alike 
suited, therefore, for furnishing the grandest of conser¬ 
vatories and the most unpretentious of amateurs’ green¬ 
houses. The plants are withal of easy culture ; but 
before alluding to this more particularly a few con¬ 
densed botanical and historical notes on this flue genus 
will not be unacceptable. 
The species of Camellia in cultivation are few, not 
exceeding eight, and some of these are comparatively 
unimportant and very rare, being grown more as curi¬ 
osities than for any other reason. All are natives of 
China and Japan, but it is only the varieties of one 
species that form such beautiful ornaments of our con¬ 
servatories and greenhouses. As regards the position 
of the Camellia in the vegetable kingdom, it may be 
stated for the information of our younger readers that 
it is included in the family Ternstroemiaceae, which 
contains amongst other genera Tliea, Caraipa, Coclilo- 
spermum, and Eurya, but the nearest relative to the 
genus under special consideration is the first named, 
Tliea, to which, indeed, several of the species of Camellia 
are referred by some authors. 
Taking the Camellias in the order of their introduc¬ 
tion, the first demanding attention is C. japonica, which 
has given rise to the very numerous varieties now grown 
in gardens. This was known to several of the old 
botanists, and was described by Linnaeus, Ivaempfer, 
and Thunberg in the eighteenth century. The form 
that first appeared in this country was the “ Common 
Single Red variety,” which was obtained byLordPetre 
in 1739, other forms being introduced at intervals until 
at the commencement of the present century there w T ere 
about a dozen in cultivation—a striking contrast with 
the two or three hundred which are now enumerated in 
catalogues. Three of the earlier varieties—the double 
white, double red, and double striped—are supposed to 
have been introduced by Mr. Main, wdio was sent out 
to China as a collector by Mr. Slater of Leyton in 1792. 
There is, however, some uncertainty as to the number 
introduced, for Mr. Slater died previous to Mr. Main’s 
return, and the collection had been dispersed. Some 
cases had, however, been sent to Kew and private 
gardens, and it may be safely asserted that these were 
amongst the first of the double forms that reached 
England. In the second edition of Aiton’s “ Hortus 
Kewensis,” published in 1810-13 eleven varieties are 
enumerated, comprising the single, semi-double, and 
double Red, Middlemist’s Red, the Myrtle-leaved Red, 
Anemone-flow r ered, Poeony-flowered, Double Striped, 
Blush, Buff, and Double White, most of which are 
figured either in Curtis’s “Botanical Magazine” or 
Andrews’ “Repository.” To these a twelfth, the 
Pompon Camellia, is added in Edwards’s “ Botanical 
Register” for 1815. It was then a novelty, and though 
its white double flowers tinged with crimson at the 
base of the petals are pretty, they cannot be compared 
with the symmetrical and delicately tinted varieties we 
have now in such abundance. 
The number of forms was gradually increased, and 
in Don’s “ History of Diclilamydeous Plants ” (1830) 
twenty-four varieties are described as having been in¬ 
troduced from China, and fourteen as seedlings raised 
in Britain. From that time there has been a con¬ 
tinual steady advance, the continental growers—-par¬ 
ticularly in France and Italy—having given much 
attention to the raising of new varieties, until the total 
has become almost formidable, and the amateur culti¬ 
vator who desires only a few select forms is at a loss 
what to choose wdiere so many are good. Compara¬ 
tively few additions are, however, now made ; and, in 
fact, there is little room for them, unless they take a 
step in the direction of the much-coveted “ blue Ca¬ 
mellia,” which, like the blue Dahlia and blue Rose, 
has yet to be obtained. 
Turning to the other species, the next in chrono¬ 
logical order is C. Sasanqua, which, by the w r ay, is 
considered by many writers as belonging to the genus 
Tliea. This is described in Thunberg’s “Flora Ja¬ 
ponica ” (1784), and an illustration is given which 
fairly represents its characters ; and in the “Botanical 
Register for 1818 is also a very good figure. It w r as 
introduced in 1811 from China through the East 
India Company, and first flowered in Sir Joseph 
Banks’ conservatory at Springrove. The flowers are 
small, 1 or 1J inch in diameter, with irregular pure 
white petals and small lance-shaped or ovate bright 
green leaves. In Sir George Staunton’s description of 
Lord Macartney’s embassy to China the following in¬ 
teresting particulars are given of this plant:—“ A 
plant very like the Tea flourished on the sides and 
tops of the mountains, where the soil consisted of little 
more than the fragments of stone crumbled into a sort 
of coarse earth by the joint action of the sun and rain. 
The Chinese call this plant Cha-wdiaw, or Flower of 
Tea, on account of the resemblance of one to the other, 
and because its petals, as well as the entire flowers, of 
Arabian Jessamine are sometimes mixed amongst the 
No. 142.— Vol. VI., Third Series. 
No 1793— Vol. LXIX., Old Series. 
