62 
THE CAMELLIA.—SCIENTIFIC GLEANINGS. 
THE CAMELLIA. 
e F all the greenhouse plants this has been generally esteemed as the best, because of the fine 
appearance of the plant at all times, and its extreme beauty when in flower. The plant is always 
grand, the foliage being broad, deep green, and shining; but there is nothing so rich as its bursting 
blossoms. 
When the cultivation of Camellias is commenced with plants sent in small pots from a nursery, and 
they are intended to be grown of a good form,—if they are at all lanky in their growth, it is best to 
cut off their heads at once, or to cut them in pretty severely, taking care, however, not to cut below 
the point where they were “ worked. The plants will branch out freely and become much hand¬ 
somer for this operation; and it is as well to lose the first season as to grow a plant that is ugly, and 
will require to be cut down ultimately, for the older it gets the less tractable it is. 
It is often complained that Camellias will not set well for bloom: this arises from bad management. 
As soon as they begin to grow they require greater warmth and no check. In the summer months 
they often get put out in the open air to experience the changes of wetness and dryness, hot sun, cold 
winds, &c., whereas they should be in some well sheltered place, where neither the mid-day sun nor 
the north or east wind can reach them. A greenhouse without fire heat, and with shade against the 
mid-day sun, will be found perhaps the best place for them, unless they are placed in a canvas house 
such as Tulips are grown under; they continue growing there till the bloom-buds are developed, which is 
almost a matter of certainty. The fault in the management of these is much the same as that which 
attends American plants. Directly we have had the bloom we are careless of the plant; instead of 
which, it is the time, of all others that we should be most careful; for stinting them of water, giving 
them the hot sun, exposing them to north-east winds or high winds of any kind, or allowing them 
too much wet—which, if exposed in a rainy season is inevitable, will assuredly spoil the next year’s 
bloom. 
When, therefore, we commence growing the Camellia from a small plant, the greenhouse—and a 
part of it out of the draught,—or the coolest part of an airy stove, would be the best place, and they 
should not be exposed to the open air until they have completed their growth and set their bloom buds. 
If we grow the plant in the stove, it must be brought by degrees into the greenhouse, and then into a 
cold pit. It is rapid change from heat to cold, or from cold to heat, excess of water, or too little of it, 
that makes them cast their buds. The Camellia is by no means a tender plant, but it does not thrive 
well in rapid changes. 
As often as a pot gets filled with roots, so often should they be shifted to larger pots; but this 
should be as the bloom declines and before they make their growth, or not till they have begun to 
swell their buds in the early months previous to opening, in both which states the plant wants extra 
nourishment; but the shifting must be managed without the least disturbance to the fibres, or the 
plants would throw their buds. The soil for the Camellia should be loam from rotted turves, one-half; 
cow or horse dung fully rotted to mould, one-fourth; peat, one-fourth. These ingredients should be 
well mixed.—X. Z. 
SCIENTIFIC GLEANINGS. 
(71YCADEZE, which, from the number of their fossil species, must have occupied a far more impor- 
tant place in the ancient, than in the present vegetable world, accompany their allies, the 
Coniferae, from the coal formation upwards, but are almost entirely wanting in the variegated sand¬ 
stone, which contains the remains of a luxuriant growth of certain conifers of peculiar form, Voltzia, 
Haidingera, and Albertia. The Cycadeae attain a maximum in the keuper and the lias, which contain 
twelve different species ; in the cretaceous rocks marine plants and naiades predominate. Thus, the 
forest of Cycadeae of the oolitic period has long disappeared, and in the oldest groups of the tertiary 
formation this family is very subordinate to the coniferae and the palms. The lignites, or beds of 
