The Chinese Species of Camellia in Cultivation Bruce Bartholomew
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The Chinese Species of Camellia in Cultivation Bruce Bartholomew Though new camellias have been introduced to the West from China for 250 years, only a quarter of the known species are yet cultivated here Chma is the origin of many cultivated plants Camellia is basically a Chinese genus, that now are grown throughout the world. some nine out of ten of its species being Some of them, such as the peonies, chrysan- endemic to China. Its main center of species themum, wintersweet, and osmanthus, tra- diversity straddles the Tropic of Cancer ditionally were grown in Chinese gardens. In across southern China. Diversity drops rap- most cases these Chinese garden plants start- idly to the south and more gradually to the ed being brought into cultivation in the West north. Although most of its species are con- in the Eighteenth Century, and the earliest tinental, the genus extends to the islands of introductions of live plants from China were Japan, Taiwan, and Hainan, one species, mostly restricted to garden plants. Another Camellia lanceolata, reaching the Philip- and far-richer source of cultivated plants has pines and Indonesia. been the indigenous flora of China, particu- The genus as a whole has primarily a sub- larly of the mountains of southwestern China. tropical and warm-temperate distribution, These wild plants were brought mto culti- and even the most northerly species have vation from the late Nineteenth Century only a moderate degree of frost hardiness. As through to the present, after Western collec- a result, camellias as garden plants are tors and, more recently, Chinese collectors, restricted to areas with relatively mild cli- started exploring the riches of the Chinese mates ; m areas with more severe climates, ’ flora. plants must be grown in greenhouses during The genus Camellia includes species in the winter. As horticultural plants, the most both of these categories; thus, the history of important species are the more temperate the introduction of Camellia species into ones in the genus, with C. japonica Western gardens spans the period from the being by far the most prominent. In fact, if first half of the Eighteenth Century up to the one mentions camellias, the image that present. Even with this long history, only comes to mind for most people is this spe- about one in four of the currently recognized cies. species is in cultivation in the West, or even in Chinese botanical gardens. Camellia japonica Camellia as m Opposite~ euryoides depicted Loddiges’s Camellia japonica was the first species to be Botanical Cabinet m 1832 This small, white-flowered into cultivation m the and camelha was unknown m the mld for over a century brought West, after it was descnbed from cultmated matenal. although it was described on the basis of 4 material from Japan, probably all the early was one grown by James Lord Petre at least introductions during the late Eighteenth as early as 1739. This plant was the model Century and early Nineteenth Century were for the first color illustration of a Camellia from China. Linnaeus named the species in in the West, which was used as a prop for an 1753 on the basis of the illustration and illustration of a Chmese pheasant published description in Engelbert Kaempfer’s Amoen- by George Edwards in 1745. The origin of itatum Exoticarum Politico-Physico-Medi- Lord Petre’s plant is not known, although it carum, published in 1712. Kaempfer’s work is obviously a cultivar of C. japonica and was the result of a visit to Japan from 1690 must have been brought back from China by to 1692, when he was employed as a doctor one of the ship captains of the English East- by the Dutch East-India Company. The ear- India Company. Lord Petre died of smallpox liest illustration of C. japonica in the West at the age of 29 in 1742, but many of his was by the English apothecary James Petiver, plants were taken over by his gardener, Philip who published a description and illustration Miller, who was in charge of the Chelsea of this species in his Gazophylacii Naturae Physic Garden, and it is quite likely that his eJ Artis in 1701 based on a collection sent C. japonica was among them. During the back to England from China by James Cun- second half of the Eighteenth Century, C. ningham. Cunningham’s collections were japonica was grown in England, but its popu- among the earliest specimens of Chinese larity can be traced to the importation of sev- plants available to Western botanists. Cun- eral specific cultivars from China in the late ningham collected his specimens when he Eighteenth Century. was a physician in the service of the English During this period the British were rapidly East-India Company, which had established expanding their trade m southern China, and a trading post, or factory, as they were then ship captains were encouraged by wealthy called, on Zhushan (Chushan) Island, oppo- British horticulturists to bring back plants site the city of Ningpo. Although the post for their gardens. Two C. japonica cultivars, lasted only a few years, Cunningham col- ’Alba Plena’ and ’Variegata’, are of particular lected plants representing about 600 species, note. They were brought back to England m which he sent back as herbarium specimens 1792 by Captain Connor of the East-India to James Petiver and Leonard Plukenet. Merchantman Carnatic, and were illustrated Among them were specimens of Camellia in Andrews’s Botanical Repository in 1792. japonica and C. sinensis, as well as of C. The great enthusiasm for growing C. japon- fraterna, although the last specimen was not ica from the end of the Eighteenth Century determined until the 1950s. The Petiver and through most of the Nineteenth Century can Plukenet collections were later purchased by really be dated from the importation of these Sir Hans Sloane, and Sloane’s collection two cultivars. Over the next few decades became the foundation of the British Museum there was a great flurry of interest in this (Natural History). species, as can be seen from the sumptuously Neither Cunningham nor Kaempfer was illustrated books and hand-colored plates in responsible for bringing C. japonica into cul- periodicals of the early Nineteenth Century. tivation in the West, and although this spe- Between 1792 and 1830, at least twenty-three cies is a conspicuous element in the forests cultivars of C. japonica had been introduced of southern Japan, the earliest introductions from Asia, most if not all of them from were all from Chinese gardens. The first China. Subsequently, a great many new cul- plant for which we have any historical record tivars have been named from seedlings grown 5 in the West, as well as from later introduc- who was a director of the East-India Com- tions from Asia. At present, there are several pany and brought plants back as a gift for his thousand named cultivars of C. 7apomca, wife. However, it appears that these plants with many more being named every year. died, and therefore that the first person to cultivate plants of this species in Europe suc- was Linnaeus. Camellia sinensis cessfully Linnaeus was familiar with the tea plant The second species to be brought into culti- from the publications of Siebold, and it was vation in the West was C. sinensis. This spe- on the basis of Siebold’s published descrip- cies was known to be the source of tea that tion of the tea plant, and the accompanying had been imported to England and Europe illustration, that Linnaeus named the genus smce the Seventeenth Century. Live plants Thea in 1735 and the species T sinensis in of C. sinensis may have been cultivated in 1753. However, it is quite certam that when England as early as 1740 by Captain Geoff, Linnaeus named this species he had not yet Two renditions of Camellia sasanqua from Curtis’s Botamcal Magazine (1859 and 1940, respectively) The plant m the left-hand drawmg is called "Camellia sasanqua var. anemomflora," the anemone-flowered vanety. 6 seen a living plant or even a dried specimen up until the latter half of the Nineteenth of it. Thea is no longer recognized as a sep- Century. The illustration in Thunberg’s 1784 arate genus, and the species T sinensis has Flora japonica is rather cursorily drawn, and been transferred to the genus Camellia. By although there is a specimen of it in Thun- the middle of the Eighteenth Century, tea berg’s herbarium, both botanists and horti- was already an important import from Asia, culturists repeatedly confused C. sasanqua and there was considerable interest in with other species from the mainland of obtaining living plants of Thea sinensis. Asia. It was not until after Japan had opened Although Sweden did not have as significant its doors to Western contact that live plants a role in the commerce with eastern Asia as of C. sasanqua were grown in the West, in did England, Portugal, or the Netherlands, the second half of the 19th century. there was still a Swedish East Asia Trading Japan was quite effective m insulating her- Company, and it was through the efforts of self from contact with the West, except for the Swedish captain Carolus Gustavus Eck- limited trading contact through the port of erberg that Linnaeus was able to obtain live Nagasaki. China was not as successful. The plants. The seeds were obtained in China and were planted in pots shortly after Eckerberg set sail for Europe. Live plants were pre- sented to Linnaeus on October 3, 1763. Although C. sinensis is the only species of any major economic importance in the genus, it has never received much attention as a garden plant.