CAMELLIA (Neo-Lat.. named after Joseph Kamel, a Aloravian traveler of the Seventeenth Century, who first described the ramellia ja ponica). A genus of plants of the natural order Ternstrcemincete, nearly hardy evergreen shrubs or trees, and natives of China. Japan, and the north of India. Camellias are now extensively cultivated as greenhouse shrubs in Europe and in the United States. Alany varieties are in cultivation. The best known and most esteemed is Camellia japonira, a greenhouse shrub. Its lea yes are ovate-elliptical, almost acuminate and serrate shining; the flowers are without stalks, mostly solitary, large. and rose-like. it is a native of Japan, and there and in China it has been carefully cultivated from time immemorial. In its wild state it has red flowers, and the red single camellia is much used by gardeners as a stock on which to graft the line varieties, the flowers of which are generally double. The colors of the cultivated forms are various, in cluding red, white, and yellow, and the varieties also differ much in the form and position of the petals. The flowering time is in autumn, Win
ter. and spring. Camellias grow best in cool houses. Free access of air is of great impor tame, and water must be given very liberally. yet with such eantion that the soil may never remain soaked after the immediate wants of the plant are supplied. The proper soil for camel lias is a loose black mold; a little sand and peat are often advantageously mixed with loam to boil, it. Camellias are often propagated by cuttings, or layers, Ian generally by grafting or inarehing. The single eamellia is also propa gated by seed. and in this way the hest stocks for grafting are procured. Of the other species of camellia, the most hardy, and one of the most beautiful, is Camellia reticulata. The seeds of certain varieties, as Camellia oicifera and te/7r. nil used in China for the production of an (dive-like oil. The true tea-plant is a close ally of the eamellia. See TEA,