272 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
f April 5, 18«, 
Camellia than C. maliflora made its appearance in Mr. Colville’s 
Nursery, King’s Road, Chelsea— i.e., the Fringed White (japonica 
fimbriata). This handsome variety is still a favourite in numbers 
of gardens, the white petals being evenly and finely fringed. The 
Various-flowered Camellia was sent to Kew about the same time, 
but it is not known who introduced fimbriata. 
Messrs. Chandler and Buckingham at Yauxhall in 1818 and 
subsequent years endeavoured systematically to improve the race 
of cultivated Camellias by crossing and the selection of seedlings. 
In 1819 they had obtained two very distinct varieties in corallina 
and Chandleri, both of which still retain a place in collections, a 
sufficient indication of their merit. Chandleri resulted from a cross 
between the Waratah and the Double Striped. A few years later 
the same firm issued their “ Camellia Britannica," containing eight 
coloured plates of English-raised seedlings, comprised, in addition 
to the two named, Aitonia, Altheffiflora, insignis, florida, Anemoni- 
flora alba, and Rosa-sinensis. The Vauxhall nursery was then, and 
for many years subsequently, famed for its collection of C tmellias, 
and very much of the public attention accorded to these plants was 
due to the efforts of Messrs. Chandler and Buckingham to popularise 
them, and also to their books, but especially the larger and beauti¬ 
fully illustrated work issued by Messrs. Alfred Chandler and W. B. 
Booth. 
It has been already incidentally noted that a single white 
Camellia was raised at Tooting by Messrs. Rollisson & Sons in 
1814, which, owing to its free seeding habit, became the pirent of 
many fine double and coloured varieties. The plant, nevertheless, 
seems to have remained very sc.arce for some years, as at a meeting 
of the Society of Flora at Brussels, February 19th, 1825, a medal 
of honour was awarded to M. Vandermaelin for a specimen on 
account of its rarity. In 1824, Mr. Press, gardener to E. Gray, Esq., 
Hornsey, raised a number of seedlings from a cross between this 
variety and the semi-double red, several of which became great 
favourites. This was especially the case with Press’s Eclipse, a 
double white with pink stripes, that for a number of years held a 
prominent place amongst the popular Camellias. 
The introduction of varieties still continued, but two were added 
in 1820 and 1823 respectively, which were assigned the rank 
of species—namely, C. reticulata and C. Kissi, both very distinct 
and attractive. C. reticulata has somewhat the habit of C. japonica 
but less bushy, more straggling in style, with long tapering dark 
green leaves, and large semi-double rosy crimson flowers varied 
with a darker shade. It was introduced by Capt. Rawes at the 
time named. A plant flowered in 1820, and it avas figured in the 
“ Botanical Register of the folloaving year (t. 1078). A double 
variety of this avas sent to England by Fortune a long time after¬ 
wards, and was figured in the “Botanical Magazine” in 1837 
(t. 4970) from a specimen at Bank Grove, Kingston, 13 feet high 
with a spread of 10 feet, from avhich 2600 flower buds were removed 
and about 2000 allowed to remain. It is remarkable for its free 
flowering character, and the original plant now filling a frame in the 
Royal Horticultural Society’s Garden at Chiswick annually pro¬ 
duces an enormous number of flowers. 
The fragrant Camellia Kissi was introduced from Nepal in 1823 
by Mr. Samuel Brookes, Balls Pond, and it was thought at one 
time that a distinct race of fragrant Camellias might have been 
produced by its aid. H any experiments were undertaken in that 
direction they do not appear to have been very successful, for we 
find no records of any varieties so produced. The flowers are small, 
white, and pleasantly but not powerfully fragrant. C. japonica 
imbricata was imported for the London Horticultural Society by 
Mr. J. D. Parks in 1824, and flowered ia 1827, when its large 
handsome effective crimson blooms immediately secured it a 
number of admirers, and has insured it a place in the best col 
lections until the present day. Sweet’s “ Hortus Britannicus” 
was published in 1820, and in that four species are enumerated, 
twenty-seven imported varieties, and eight English seedlings. In 
the “ Horticultural Society’s Transactions ” for 1830, Mr. William 
Beattie Booth, A.L.S., Garden Clerk to the Society, contiibuted ai 
descriptive list of the Camellias then known, naming twenty-five- 
varieties, and the same writer furnished the desciiptions for the- 
admirable illustrations of Camellias by Mr. Alfred Chandler, issued 
between 1830 and 1832. This forms a valuable work in one 
volume, containing forty accurately drawn and coloured repre¬ 
sentations of the best Camellias known, and that it is still regarded 
as a creditable production can be judged from the fact that a copy 
was recently sold, as noted on page 242, for £4. From this time 
the advance of Camellias, both here, on the Continent, and in 
America, was rapid in the extreme, and to illustrate the demand 
for the flowers in New York, Loudon published a letter, dated 
January 10th, 1832, which stated that Pine Apples were selling for 
3d. and 4d. each, while expanding buds of Camellias were sold at at 
dollar each, and a list of applicants was kept who were supplied in 
rotation as the buds expanded. Florists are not often troubled 
much in this way now. 
Loudon’s “ Hortus Britannicus ” for 1830 enumerates forty- 
seven varieties of Camellia japonica, while in the supplement for 
1850 seventy-one more varieties are added, no less than sixty-three 
being seedlings, a good indication of the increasing attention they 
were receiving. It is remarkable, however, that Mr. C. MTntosla 
of Claremont Gardens estimated about 200 varieties were grown iii 
England in 1838, and states that M. Parmentier of Enghien,. 
Belgium, had 400 varieties. Whether these statements are correct 
or not, I have a catalogue of Camellias issued by M. Makoy of 
Liege ’oefore the year mentioned above, in which 290 varieties are- 
named, ranging from 2 to 100 francs each, plants of the well known. 
0. tricolor being priced at the latter amount. From this time we. 
have been chiefly indebted to continental horticulturists for the 
new varieties, and especially to cultivators in Italy, where much, 
attention has been paid to the improvement of the Camellia^ 
Scores of novelties have been sent thence in the past twenty years, 
and the best have obtained a place in the select lists issued by 
English nurserymen, for no one now attempts to include all the 
varieties known, American horticulturists have contributed to the- 
development of the Camellia, and an extremely distinct strong¬ 
growing variety named Floyi is believed to have been one of thef 
earliest seedlings raised there, dating from about 1820, and it w.as 
included in Makoy’s list already noted. More recently we are 
indebted to the late Mr. Hovey for several handsome varieties, one 
of which, C. H. Hovey, ranks as one of the best formed and 
brightest coloured Camellias in cultivation. Belgium has obtained 
the name as the Camellia-growing country, as there some millions- 
are grown every year to meet a wide European demand, consti¬ 
tuting, with the Azaleas, a large portion of the nursery trade. 
One of the Belgian nurserymen, M. Verschaffelt, also, some years 
ago, issued the finest illustrated monograph of Camellias yet 
published. It is entitled “ Nouvelle Iconographie des Camellias,”’ 
and it appeared during the years 1848 to 1860 in twelve volumes 
with forty-eight plates each. The famous variety C. Donckelaari 
(fig. 37) is said to have been introduced by Van Siebold from 
Japan about 1833, being named in honour of M. Donckelaar of the 
Botanic Gardens, Louvain, and distributed by M. Jacob Makoy. 
In Great Britain all the larger nurserymen devote some «pac3 to 
Camellias ; Messrs. Veitch & Sons, Chelsea, and Mr. B. S. Williams, 
Upper Holloway, especially, but Messrs. W. Paul & Son, Waltham 
Cross, have made a specialty of the plant for many years, and some 
notes on their collection will be found on page 280. It is rather 
remarkable that of the hundreds of varieties raised or introduced 
only fifteen have been certificated by the Royal Horticultural 
Society, and several of these can by no means be considered as the 
best now obtainable, but may be worth recording in connection 
with these historical notes. The varieties that have been certifi¬ 
cated are as follows :—Contessa Lavinia Maggi (Veitch), March 
19th, 1862; Napoleon III iLee), March 18th, 1863; Filippe 
Parlatore (Veitch), March 31st, 1863; Reine des Beautiis- 
(Standish), March 7th, 1865 ; and reticulata flore pleno from the 
