Q HE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Mabch 27, 1860. 
392 
Let any one who is at all conversant witli the subject go 
and see the effects of those influences on the flowers of 
the specimen plants which have been planted out in the 
beds in the large house—such as those of DoncTcelaari, 
Chandleri, and Megans in particular : and those of 
Woodsii, Coralina, Imbrieata, and the old Double White 
in general; and then say who can properly judge the 
effect of keeping pace with the march of improvement on 
the taste and fashion of the rising race of garden admirers 
and patrons of modern civilisation. 
One plant of DoncTcelaari, 6 feet high by 4 feet wide, 
is one mass of bloom, and every flower as richly variegated 
as the old variegata. Another plant of it in a pot, and 
still larger, is equally variegated. Chandleri, 10 feet by 8 
feet, has two hundred flowers without one plain one among 
them, the whole being as much variegated as Donekelaari. 
Mr. Alfred Chandler, who remembers the origin of this 
kind was present; and he confessed he never saw his 
namesake so uniformly variegated, or with such immense 
blossoms. Perhaps the grandest of all is Megans. It is 
about 12 by 10 feet, with three or four hundred blossoms, 
and not one of them under five inches across ; a great 
number being fully 6 inches in diameter, and perfectly 
variegated throughout with broad bands of white on the 
outer petals, and blotched on the inner ones, the centre 
of many of the flowers being nearly Anemone-shaped— 
all these are seen as often as not with the flowers quite 
lain. The old plant of Coralina is 12 by 10 feet, and i 
as two thousand flowers this season. The original 
Altheeflora is 10 by 5 feet: it was in bloom at Christmas, ; 
and will last to the end of the Camellia season. Woodsii, \ 
12 by 12 feet, with four hundred blooms, and not a button ! 
among them. Young plants, and unhealthy ones of 
Woodsii, have the centre of the flowers in hard buttons ; 
it is the next longest to hold in bloom after Altheeflora. 
Double White, 6 feet by 4, with larger and smaller sizes 
of the same in large pots, were equally fine. 
The finest Camellias that ever came from China are the 
two last sent by Mr. Fortune. One called the Cup of \ 
Beauty, is here 5 feet high in a No. 8-pot; it was cut > 
down to five feet for grafts. The other is called Princess 
Frederick William of Prussia. They were bought last 
vear—the Cup of Beauty in April, and the Princess much 
later, or, perhaps, at the sale of Mr. Fortune’s plants: 
yet already there are hard upon four hundred plants of 
each on sale here ; also the five-feet Cup of Beauty, which 
would make one of the handsomest wedding presents in 
England. 
But I mean to begin with the best of the new kinds, as 
I did with the Hyacinths at Highgate, and then to give 
lists of the best, and cheapest, and second cheapest best; 
also to warrant them on my own responsibility to be just 
as good as I put them down, and some of them rather 
better than the prices would indicate. 
The newest, or, at least, the best of them are the fol¬ 
lowing :— Caryophylloides, which means Carnation-like ; 
it is a fine blush white with rosy stripes, and comes nearest 
to Albertus of all the Carnation ones ; but a much finer one 
than either of them in the same way is a new seedling of 
Messrs. Milne & Co.’s own raising, which bloomed there 
this spring. All the seedlings of Messrs. Chandler & Son 
were bought by the firm of Milne & Co. with the rest of 
the stock, and the lawful way to introduce this seedling 
is to say that it is the best Camellia that was ever raised 
by the Chandlers. It is of the same size and shape as 
the old Double White Camellia, or Fimbriata, of a deeper 
blush ground colour than Albertus, and the best Carna¬ 
tion and Picotee-marked of all the race. This is the first 
light-ground British seedling which excels the Chinese 
crosses of that strain; and we may p\it down Albertus 
as the best of them on the side of the Chinese, and 
Princess Frederick William the best in a deeper ground 
colour. 
There is another of their seedlings of the same age, 
which is a dark crimson, as double as a Bose and as 
regular as a Dahlia. Neither of them, I believe, are yet 
finally named. There is another older seedling, which I 
mentioned last year as standing against the back wall of 
the large house, which is of a deep coral colour, and will 
rank amongst the first Camellias of the age. This last, 
and probably the other two, are figured, and will appear 
in a new monthly work on popular flowers, which is coming 
out under the leadership of Mr. Moore, of the Chelsea 
Physic Gardens, and of the Floricultural Committee of 
the Horticultural Society. One of the three will be named 
Codyana, after Mr. Bichard Cody, who attended the 
Camellias for the Messrs. Chandler for the space of thirty- 
six years, and who i3 doing them now for the firm of 
Milne & Co. Many gardeners, and many more nursery¬ 
men of the highest class, owe their knowledge of the 
proper culture and propagation of Camellias to Mr. Cody; 
and, as if to allay the pride of caste, one of the oldest of 
our writers on gardening has now to draw on Mr. Cody’s 
experience to make up a very practical article on Ca¬ 
mellias for the readers of The Cottage Gabdenee ; and 
may the Cody mantle fall upon all who will be wise 
enough to buy Camellia Codyana at the first starting off. 
There are many more seedlings of that batch to bloom 
yet, and some have bloomed which do not come into my 
net for first-rate new ones. Instead of the old maxim 
of protection of scarce and dear, or fifty plants of a new 
Camellia at two guineas the piece, they now speak of five 
hundred of each of these three at less than a guinea 
each—that is, when they mean to let them out in earnest. 
That is just as I do with my own seedlings ; I never 
hand them over to my agents till I have them by the 
hundred, and I tie their hands not to exceed a certain 
figure for any one of them ; then, if they should not please, 
there is little harm done, and the same buyers will come 
back again and again for every one of every batch of 
cheap seedlings, be they Camellias, Dahlias, Boses, Pelar- 
gonhims, or Geraniums. There are some few breeders 
whose seedlings I would not venture on as gifts, because 
the very high prices assure me the sorts are not worth 
much, else they would be sold cheap. It is the old tune 
of fifty at two guineas a-piece against five hundred at 
10.9. each. 
But to go on with the newer Camellias. Washingtonia 
in the way of Queen Victoria, with a white stripe in each 
petal. Pictorum Poseum, fine form, and the centre petals 
tipped white. Dunlop's Imbrieata, lighter than the old 
Imbrieata, and regular carnation on the edges. Dan- 
lop’s Americana, carnation and hexangular. Formosa 
alba, quite as large as the old Double White. Fmelina 
alba, blush white and imbricated. Lady Mary La- 
bouchere, very fine deep rose, with broad, flat petals. 
Beali Palmeri, an improvement on Beali. Queen of 
Denmark, rosy crimson, with white stripes. Princess 
Frederick William, aforesaid, imbricated and perfect 
carnation. Cup of Beauty, ditto, a large pure white, 
streaked faintly with pink. Pearl, white as the driven 
snow, and shape of Imbrieata. Mrs. Abbey Wilder, 
white, with red stripes. Gulielma Ottoleni, bright glossy 
cherry , striped with white. Fgeria Hombert, a fine rosy 
imbricated bloom ; and Adelina Benvenuti, a large, hand¬ 
some white flower, blotched with rose. 
The following are the cream of the cheapest Camellias, 
taken by the dozen :—Double White, Beali, Imbrieata, 
Carswelliana, Chandleri, Lady Hume's Blush, Doncke- 
laari, Variegata or Double Striped, Altheeflora, Coralina, 
Elegans, and Fimbriata. 
And these the best of the next cheapest:— Albertus, 
Archduchess Augusta, Catherine Loughi, Dante, Fmilio 
Camproni, Daviesii, Jubilee, Dampieri, Francofortensis, 
Marchioness of Exeter, Magniflca Rubra, Optima, Mi¬ 
randa Rosea, Matlioliana, Pulaski, Queen Victoria, 
Reine des Fleurs, Reticulata, Vandesia Rosea, the nearest 
to Marchioness of Exeter, the Marchioness being next to 
Elegans. 
The next selection is from the 5s. kinds and upwards, 
