CAMELLIA RETICULATA.
C a p ta in R aw e s’s Camellia.
C ame llia R e ticu la ta , foliis o b lo n g is a cum in a tis s e r r a tis r e tic u la tis p la n is , ram u lis
p e tio lisq u e g la b ris , o v a rio s e ric eo . L in d le y .
Camellia R e tic id a ta . B o ta n ic a l R e g is te r , t. 1078. B o ta n ic a l M a g a z in e , t. 2784.
TH E merit of first introducing this fine speties is due to Captain
Richard Rawes, of th e Honorable Ea st In d ia Company’s service, who
brought home a plant of it, in 1820, for his friend, Thomas Carey
Palmer, Esq., at th e same time with another great ornament of ouv
gardens, th e Primula Sinensis.
I t is of a strong, robust habit, and very distinct, from any of the
other Camellias. The branches are round, smooth, and erect, sparingly
furnished with oblong, sharp-pointed, thick, flat, strongly reticulated,
dull green leaves, usually three inches and a half long, and upwards of
an inch broad, with a strong pale gi-een midrib, and numerous small
sharp serratures. The foot-stalks are about a quarter of an inch long,
brownish-green, and a little channelled on the upper side.
The flower buds are very large, o f an oval form, somewhat pointed,
and covered with six or more proportionably large, roundish, concave,
pale green, pubescent scales; th e inner ones often coloured at the edges
like the petals.
The flowers are remarkably handsome, and have a great resemblance,
both in form and colour, to those of the PcEonia Moutan Rosea.
They usually appear during the months of February, March, and April,
and measure, when expanded, no less than five inches and a hall' in
diameter. The petals are about seventeen or twenty in number, of a
clear purplish-red colour, much undulated, and irregularly and loosely
arranged; each of them is two inches and a half long, and rather more
than an inch broad a t the extremity, sometimes divided, b u t generally
entire, and strongly marked with dark-coloured veins. In th e 'c e n tre
of the flower, there are often a few petals very different in form, and
rather paler than the others, which rise upright, and divide the stamina
into separate, parcels; they are for the most p a rt narrow, deeply cut.