CAMELLIA. Everyone will acknowledge that the camellia, or "rose of Japan," is one of the loveliest flowers ever introduced into this country; but unlike our European rose, which it so much resembles, it has no fragrance. It grows upon an evergreen shrub or tree with thick dark shining leaves, and in its wild state has red flowers like those of our wild rose.
Most of the cultivated forms are double or triple, and vary in color from yellow and white to pink and deep red. The camellia is a native of China, India, and Japan, and was introduced to Europe in the 17th century by a Jesuit monk, Joseph Kamel, from whose name the latinized word camellia is derived.
It is now extensively cultivated in greenhouses in Europe and the United States, and in some places in the South the bushes grow luxuriantly in the open ground.