rfTNDOW GARDENING. ]9| 
Although brought from China, it is a native of Japan, whence its name Ja- 
ponica, and belongs to the genus of the Tea Plant, the Bohea and viridis, 
■which supply the well-known black and green teas of commerce. 
The first plants were brought to England in 1739, but they died from being 
treated as stove plants ; yet the idea of them was given, and it only required 
time and perseverance to make them what they now are — the ornament of every 
greenhouse, conservatory, and window garden. 
The commencement of the general culture of the Camellia begnn in 1792, 
when the single red variety was again imported from China. The double white 
and the variegated red were the next kinds introduced, and they were followed 
by the "Waratah, or Anemone flowered, and the fringed white, the pale black, 
and the striped and variegated. The single white was not introduced until 
1818. !Mr. Fortune, who has traveled extensively in both China and Japan, 
and added many valuable plants to our collections, met with specimens of 
Camellias growing wild in the woods of Poo-to-san, some of which were tall 
trees, being from 25 to 30 feet high. Their glossy, evcrgieen foliage, and mag- 
nificent blossoms — red, white, buff, yellow, crimson, variegated, and blotched — 
render them one of the most beautiful features in an Oriental landscape. The 
trees are so plentiful in Japan and China that the seeds are used in cookery and 
medicine, and from one species an oil for anointing the liair is extracted. 
Camellia maliflora,or the ap])le-tlowcred Camellia, has beautiful little flowers 
resembling the apple blossoms in color and form, but are double. This species is 
more tender than the common kind. It was not introduced into Eugland until 
1816. 
Camellia Sasanqua is still more tender, and has a small, single flower, like that 
of the green tea plant. It is more densely allied to that species, and its leaves 
are used for tea. The hybrids which have been produced from the Camellia 
Jni)Ouira arp very numerous, and every year some new vane*i2s are added to the 
catalig"»s. 
