ooo eee 
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ground, either clear or dark, streaked or blotched 
with white, C. Chandleri striata, Cunninghamii, 
mutabilis, imbricata tricolor, and four others. 
A few of the best camellias may be named and 
briefly characterized, for selection from among 
the bewildering multitude of varieties ; C. imbri- 
cata, beautifully imbricated to its centre, and red 
in colour, but sometimes faintly streaked with 
white; imbricata alba, like the preceding, but 
white in colour; anemoniflora, red, outer petals 
large, flat, and five or six in number, and the 
inner petals small, numerous, and resembling 
those of a double red anemone; Chandlerii, red, 
often blotched with white, similar in form to 
anemoniflora, but with fewer inner petals; reti- 
culata, reddish purple, very large, five or six 
inches in diameter, and not unlike poeonia mou- 
tan; fimbriata, white, fringed in the edges, im- 
bricated to the centre, and very beautiful in form; 
pleno-alba, similar in form to fimbriata, but with- 
out fringing in the edges of the petals; candidis- 
| sima, a very delicate white, and beautifully im- 
bricated ; Hume’s blush, the outer petals round 
and recurved, the inner petals small, pointed, 
and gradually diminishing in size, and the blos- 
soms so profuse as often to amount to ten in one 
group; Press’s eclipse, white ground, spotted with 
pale red carnation colour, and very double, but 
not so regular as pleno-alba; Gray’s invincible, 
| delicate blush, striped and slightly spotted with 
pale rose, similar in tinting to a rose-flake carna- 
tion, and similar in form to Press’s eclipse ; pom- 
ponia, delicate blush, the outer petals large and 
generally arranged in two rows, and the inner 
petals smaller, irregular, and rising in the centre 
of the flower ; elegans, rosy pink, the outer petals 
large, the general form similar to pomponia, and 
the whole flower very large and fine; eximia, 
deep rose, imbricated, very double, the petals 
notched at the ends, and the whole flower large 
and fine; and Donckelaer’s, pink with white 
blotches, the petals round, and the whole flower 
large and much admired. 
A mixture of equal parts of loam and peat 
earth forms the best soil for camellias; but when. 
the loam is peculiarly hght and sandy, the pro- 
portion of peat earth ought to be less than one- 
half. A mixture of loam, sand, and leaf-mould is 
also used by some of the cultivators in the neigh- 
bourhood of London. The ingredients ought 
to be thoroughly mixed, and passed through a 
coarse sieve; and the portion of peat and loam 
which will not pass the sieve ought to be used 
for filling the bottom of the pots, and there pro- 
moting a free drainage. The general shifting of 
plants from smaller pots to larger, ought to be 
effected when the young growth has hardened, 
and the blossom-buds for the next year begin to 
be discernible at the extremity of the shoots ; 
and all plants, after being shifted, or about the 
end of June, may either be removed into the 
open air, or retained in the greenhouse, accord- 
| ing to the season at which they are wanted to 
flower. Plants removed to the open air, should 
be placed in an airy situation, with a northerly 
exposure, and so as to receive the direct rays of 
the sun only in the mornings and evenings; for 
if exposed to the south, or to a play of sunshine 
during the hotter parts of the day, they will so 
rapidly mature their flower-buds as to produce 
dwarfish or otherwise inferior flowers; and, at 
the commencement of the heavy autumnal rains, | 
or about the middle or end of September, they 
must be taken back to the greenhouse. Such 
plants as are kept constantly in the greenhouse 
ought, during summer and early autumn, to en- 
joy a very free circulation of fresh air, and to be 
occasionally sprinkled with water over the whole 
of their foliage; and all plants whatever, while 
in the greenhouse, or while under dry open air, 
must enjoy constant attention to moderate and 
regular watering. “It is a principle in horti- 
culture,” remarks the Abbe Berlese, “ that ever- 
green exotics under glass, being continually more 
or less in a growing state, require a good deal of 
water throughout the year, even in winter; and 
this is particularly the case with the camellia. 
It must be abundantly supplied with water from 
the time its buds begin to swell, previously to 
flowering, and till the buds on the young shoots | 
have attained their full size; and, throughout 
the remaining part of the year, the ground must 
be kept in an equable degree of moisture, as 
either too much or too little humidity is as in- 
jurious to camellias as it would be to heaths. 
During the months of May and June, the camel- 
lias may be watered overhead by a syringe; and 
the floor of the house should always be kept 
watered at this season, in order to maintain a 
humid atmosphere.” If watering be not copious 
and regular during the maturation of the flower- | 
ing, the bloom-buds, instead of expanding into | 
flower, will certainly fall off; and if moderate 
regular watering be not given during even the 
least active periods of growth, the whole plant 
will either perish or suffer serious damage to its 
health and energy. As the roots are apt to be- | 
come so matted in the pots as to intercept the 
filtration of water, examination should be made 
that the moisture of a watering descends to the 
ball of soil, and does not expend itself on the 
mere web of radical fibres, and care should be 
exercised that all plants in any degree matted 
be shifted from smaller pots to larger at least 
once a-year; and as constant and sometimes 
copious watering may be supposed to diminish or 
destroy the fertility of the small portion of' soil 
allotted to any one plant, care ought to be exer- 
cised, at the annual repotting, to take away as 
much of the old ball of earth as can be removed 
without inflicting injury on the roots. 
The camellia may be regarded as a hardy 
greenhouse plant, of habits very similar to the 
myrtle, requiring only a slight protection in se- 
vere weather, and thriving and flowering far 
better when kept just above the freezing-point 
CAMELLIA. | 
