361 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, March 15, 1859. 
and they are kept close, and from the sun, for a month ; 
and by the time it is just twelve months from the insertin'* 
of the cutting, the young stock is fit to graft on. The 
first few thousands of grafted plants for this season, in 
this establishment, are now out to shift for themselves; 
and the second batch was in the close cases ere February 
was out. Here they are as close as they can stand, 
on soft sand, heated from below. As soon as the grafts 
have taken, out with them in the body of the house, 
which is hot enough for anything, and in with the next 
lot; .and so on, as long and as often as you can get ripe 
wood and stocks. 
The manner of grafting Camellias is the simplest thing 
on the face of the earth. You put in the knife, and cut 
down a slice, one inch long, on the face of a plain piece of 
the stock ; then cut across the bottom of the slice, which 
leaves a notch there—on that notch fix the bottom of the 
graft. After splicing it off, in the same way as the stock, 
tie it with apiece of mat or worsted ; putting it five times 
round, and no more, for it does not want much covering 
when the place is hot and moist accordingly. Every such 
batch is moved, and repotted, as times come round, in cold 
frames and pits, till the last move lands them in the great 
Camellia-house, to be seen by the ladies walking down on 
the dry, comfortable, cocoa-nut-fibre matting, from which 
the most delicate in the land cannot catch cold. 
And now for the large plants in this house; and then 
for the best kinds of Camellias, out of 400 kinds, certain. 
Perhaps I could tell more about some of these plants 
Ilian half the nurserymen in London. It was here that I 
learned my Camellias, from being a regular customer—for 
I was never apprenticed to anything ; but, after me, (lie 
present Mr. Veitch, of the Exotic Nursery, was bound 
to learn all that I am writing about, and as much more as 
he could retain in the time. Put how many nurserymen 
know there are two distinct kinds of Camellia elegans ? 
or, out of those who do know, how many can tell their 
origin? This story is really one of the most curious 
things about Camellias since the discovery of hexangu- 
laris. There are many hexangular Camellias now-a-days, 
the worse luck ; they come that way from ill-treatment, 
and Lady Hume’s Blush more so than many others ; but 
hundreds of pounds have been spent in fruitless pursuit 
of an hexangular ilower in China, before we were aware 
how to make them at home. Well, elegans was a seedling 
in this nursery, and Chandler's elegans came as much 
blotched and as constant as the old variegata. The speci¬ 
men plant in this house, which is ten feet across, and up to 
the glass, has from 200 to 300 flowers on it, and every one 
of them is blotched; but go, and see, and convince yourself, 
and measure the flowers across—you will find most of them 
six inches across the face. Put other people's elegans is 
as plain as the- Mrs. Elliot Hose, without a mark of white 
on it. Potli kinds originated in this nursery from the 
same pod of seed, and from the very same seed. IIow, 
then, can there be two kinds of elegans in the country ? 
That is the puzzle and the mystery ; and calling one of 
them Chandler s elegans proves my words. Mr. Pooth, 
Secretary to the Horticultural Society, and Mr. Chandler, 
then junior, published a work on these Camellias, and 
there you will see Chandler s elegans as plain Mrs.Elliott; 
but go to the nursery, and the same seedling is the plant 
in bloom. That is the proper strain : who will tell us the 
reason why ? 
The best plant is Carolina, with about one thousand 
flowers. It is twelve feet across the head, and up 
to the glass, as healthy as a dairymaid, and shining 
as a Pose. Chand.leri reversed from the original mottled 
condition to as rich and plain a colour as Carolina, and 
nearly as big. Woodsii, the earliest and the longest 
of them all to hold on the flowers, with 300 flowers like 
a double Pose half open. Altlueajlora, very rich. Im- 
hricata, most beautiful, and trained like a show Pelar¬ 
gonium. The old Double White the same; and so with 
all the rest, which would take up as much room in a book 
as they do in the house. Put those who go on purpose 
to see a show of Camellias should ask to see a new seed¬ 
ling just opening the day I was there ; it is at the corner 
against the back wall as you enter the house, and pro¬ 
mised to eclipse all the fine seedlings ever raised here. 
About the back wall itself I must tell a tale of thirty- 
three years in length. All that time it was used to 
plant rare seedlings against, and to inarch from young 
plants—from the good ones. At last they were all good 
ones, the inferiors having been replaced by that time, 
hrom then to the end of the story they sponged those 
beautiful plants to the last drop of blood in them. I 
do not mean sponging to keep them clean, for they 
were never dirty ; but as they do in sponging-houses, 
by inarching from them to such a degree, as reduced 
them to mere skeletons, as they now are. Being good 
kinds, they are to be kept for renewing their strength ; 
every shoot and branch on them is to be cut in close 
to the old hard-sponged wood as soon as they arc in 
growth ; the old soil is to be forked out from among 
the roots, and new loam, and peat, and sand put in its 
stead, and a thorough good border all round them; and 
as soon as the roots get hold of this, a constant supply 
of heavy watering will soon make them as fresh and 
blooming as before. This, therefore, is a safe remedy 
for all stinted Camellias ; for an old Camellia can be 
brought round better than any other plant we grow. 
Nothing, in the way of gardening, being more useful to 
know than the ways practical men adopt for renovating 
an old place, and for bringing it rip to the requirements 
of the day. There is a fund of information to be acquired, 
by seeing how such men go to work to make the thing 
pay, which would do good even to the Council of the 
Horticultural Society, who ought to get a leaf outrof the 
book over the water, or be sent to Mecca for destroying 
the finest library of gardening books in the kingdom, if 
not for attempting to get up another experimental garden 
on the banks of the Thames. Put as soon as 1 have spun 
all my wool into long yarn. I shall tell of the rest of the 
doings here, of the best Camellias, bedding plants, pro¬ 
pagation, and practices which were new to me, and will be 
useful to most of our readers. H. Beaton. 
A PIT EOP MELONS IN SUMMER, AND 
TLANTS IN WINTER. 
“ I am about constructing a pit, so that I might keep flowers 
in it during the winter, and grow Melons in it during the summer. 
If you can give me any advice about the sort of pit which 
would be best for these two purposes, I shall feel extremely 
obliged to you.”—Y. R., Redhill. 
We should have liked to have known more of your cir¬ 
cumstances, and the means at your command. The best 
would be a structure supplied with top and bottom heat 
by hot water; but, perhaps, you do not mean to have 
that. 
A cold pit will do for keeping many plants over the 
winter; and will also do for growing Melons in the 
middle of summer, if it is deep enough to permit of 
having eighteen inches or so of fermenting material under 
the soil. We will glance at a few that will answer in 
different circumstances ; and, perhaps, you may be able to 
suit yourself, or give us an account of the plan you pro¬ 
pose, and we will give our opinion upon it. 
I. A pit to keep plants in winter, and grow one crop of 
Melons in summer; planting the latter, say early in May ; 
the pit to have no heating medium in the way of pipes 
or flues, and no linings applied externally. Make such a 
pit from five feet and a half to six feet wide, five feet high 
at back, and three feet and a half, or three feet nine inches, 
high in front. Sink it twenty-four inches to thirty inches 
below the ground level, if you can secure dryness by 
drainage or otherwise. Build the walls with bricks, nine 
inches wide, and hollow. This will so far prevent the 
