ORDER XXXIV.—TERNSTRŒMIACEÆ.—THE TERNSTRŒMIA TRIBE.
The principal plants in this order common in England are Gordonia, Stuartia, and Malachodendron. Gordonia Lasianthus, the Loblolly Bay, is a small evergreen tree, with white flowers, about the size of a rose. It is a native of America; and Stuartia and Malachodendron are beautiful low trees or shrubs, with large white flowers from the same country. The flowers have five large petals; the stamens are numerous, with the filaments growing together at the base, and attached to the petals; and there are five carpels more or less connected. Gordonia has its five sepals leathery, and covered with a silky down; its stamens almost in five distinct bundles, a five-celled capsule, and its seeds each furnished with a wing. Stuartia has a permanent calyx, five-cleft, but not parted into distinct sepals, with two bracts at the base, and a woody five-celled capsule, with seeds without wings; and Malachodendron (which was formerly called Stuartia pentagynia) has a calyx similar to that of Stuartia, but the edges of the petals are curiously crenulated, and there are five distinct carpels, each containing only one seed. Some botanists include the Camellia and the Tea in the order Ternstrœmiaceæ.
ORDER XXXV.—CAMELLIACEÆ.—THE CAMELLIA TRIBE.
There are two genera in this order, the Camellia and the Tea. The flower-bud of the Camellia is inclosed in a calyx of five, seven, or nine concave sepals, on the outside of which are several bracts, which remain on till the flower has expanded, but which are distinguished from the sepals by their dark brown colour. The sepals and the bracts are laid over one another like scales, and thus the flower lies encased in a complete coat of mail. The single flower is cup-shaped, with five, seven, or nine petals, which are sometimes joined together at the base. The stamens have long slender filaments, which either grow together at the base, or are separated into several bundles. The anthers are elliptical and versatile; that is, they are poised so lightly on the filament as to quiver with the slightest breeze. The ovary is of a conical shape, and it has three or five slender styles, ending in as many pointed stigmas, and growing together at the base. The capsule is three or five-celled; and when ripe it bursts into three or five valves, in the middle of each of which is a dissepiment, which, before the capsule opened, was attached to an axis or column in the centre. The seeds are large and few, and they are fixed to the central placenta. There is no albumen, but the embryo has two large, thick, oily cotyledons, which look as if they were jointed at the base. The leaves are leathery, dark-green and shining, and they are ovate in form, ending in a long point, and sharply serrated. The flowers spring from the axils of the leaves, and grow close to the stem without any footstalk; and the leaf-bud for the ensuing shoot grows beside the flower-bud.
I have above described the Camellia japonica, from which nearly all the Camellias in British gardens have sprung; but there are some other species. The finest of these is C. reticulata, which has very large, loose, widely-spreading flowers, of a remarkably rich crimson. The leaves are oblong, flat, and reticulately veined, being of a much finer texture than those of C. japonica. The ovary is two or four-celled, and it is covered with fine silky hairs. C. maliflora is a very beautiful species with small semi-double flowers, coloured like an apple blossom. This Camellia is by some botanists thought to be a variety of C. Sasanqua, an elegant species with white fragrant flowers; but the ovary of the first is smooth, and that of the second covered with hairs, which most botanists consider a specific difference.
The Tea tree (Thea viridis) is very nearly allied to the Camellia; but there are many points of difference. The flower of the Tea tree has a footstalk; the calyx has only five sepals; the filaments of the stamens do not grow together; the capsules are three-seeded; and the dissepiments are formed by the edges of the valves being bent inwards, instead of being attached to a central axis. The leaves are also much longer than they are broad, and they are of a thinner texture and pale green; and the outside of the capsule, which is furrowed in the Camellia, is quite smooth in the Tea tree. It is said that both the green and the black Tea are made from the leaves of Thea viridis; but there is another species called Thea Bohea, which has smaller leaves, and is a more tender, and less vigorous-growing plant. The young leaves of Camellia Sasanqua, and some of the other Camellias, are also dried, and mixed with the tea. All these plants are natives of Japan and China, and require a slight protection in England during winter.
ORDER XXXVI.—OLACINEÆ.—THE OLAX TRIBE.