3. 
CAMELLIA OLEIFERA. 
Oil-seed, Camellia. 
Camellia Oleifera, foliis ellipticis utrinque acutis argute serratis subtus suba- 
veniis, petalis bilobis, sepalis deciduis. Lindley, in Botanical Register , f. 942. 
Camellia Oleifera, Abel’s Journey in China, p. 174. App. 563. 
Camellia Oleifera, Loddiges’s Botanical Cabinet, t. 1065. 
THIS species has been overlooked by M. Decandolle, in bis Prodromus. 
It is the famous Oil-seed Tree of the Chinese, who cultivate it, according 
to Dr. Abel, in large plantations, for the sake of the excellent oil, which 
they obtain from it in abundance by a very easy process, and use for 
various domestic purposes. It is called by them Tcha-Yeoa, which may 
be interpreted, the “ Oil-bearing Tea Plant a very expressive name, 
as the plant in appearance closely resembles the Tea. This author has 
given a good figure of it, in the interesting narrative of his Journey in 
China; and states that it naturally grows in a red sort of soil, and will 
thrive where scarcely any other plants will succeed. It was sometimes 
found by him of the magnitude of a moderately-sized Cherry-tree, and 
always that of a large shrub from six to eight feet in height, and bearing 
a profusion of single white blossoms. This circumstance gave an inte¬ 
resting and novel character to the places which it covered. They often 
looked, in the distance, as if lightly clothed with snow; but, on a nearer 
approach, exhibited one immense garden. It is said to have been first 
brought to this country by Lord Macartney’s embassy, but was after¬ 
wards lost, until 1820, when Captain Nesbitt, of the Honorable East 
India Company’s ship Essex, imported plants of it for the Horticultural 
Society, by whom it has been distributed. 
It has some distant resemblance to the Camellia Sasanqua, but is 
readily distinguished from that species, being of a much more robust 
habit, and larger in every respect. The branches are round, somewhat 
pendulous, of a dark brown colour, and when in a young state, thickly 
clothed with pubescence. 
The leaves are thick, smooth, veiny, and flat, about four inches 
long, and two inches broad, elliptic, tapering to both ends, but sharpest 
at the point, with moderately large sharp serratures, which become 
c 
