31 . 
CAMELLIA JAPONICA INSIGNIS. 
Mr. Chandler's Splendid Camellia. 
Camellia Japonica Insignis. Camellia Britannica, pi. 6. 
THIS is a favourite variety with most cultivators, and there are now few 
collections in which it does not hold a conspicuous place. It was raised 
by Messrs. Chandler, at the Yauxhall Nursery, about eleven years ago; 
but it is not more than six years since it began to be generally cultivated. 
It is of robust growth, and flowers very freely. The habit of the plant 
shews it to have been raised from the WaratAh, to which it has a great 
resemblance in the size, form, and dark green colour of its leaves; but 
they differ in being flatter, and less revolute at the point and edges. 
The serratures are likewise larger and deeper than in the WaratAh, and 
the midrib appears to be of a paler colour, and more prominent. In other 
respects, the leaves of the two plants seem the same. 
The flower buds are about an inch long, and not so much pointed 
as those of the WaratAh. They are generally of a roundish-oval form, 
and a pale silvery green, seldom coloured, unless perhaps a little at the 
edge of the scales. 
The flowers, by some, are considered to surpass those of its parent; 
but, in our opinion, they are neither so perfectly double, nor so shewy. 
They are at first bell-shaped, like the single-red Camellia; by degrees 
the large outer petals, which are usually seven or eight in number, unfold 
and exhibit a dense globular mass of small wedge-shaped petals, more or 
less variegated with red and white, like a carnation, and incurved towards 
the styles, which rise conspicuous in the centre. When the outer petals 
are expanded, the flowers measure about three inches across. The petals 
themselves exceed an inch m diameter; at the apex they aie indented, 
but otherwise they are flat, and round, and of a deep rose colour, indis¬ 
tinctly marked with darker coloured veins. The inner petals are very 
small, and ranged over one another, like those of the War at Ah. In the 
p 
