Camellias, Chinese New Year, Samurai Warriors, and the Arnold Arboretum

Camellias, Chinese New Year, Samurai Warriors, and the Arnold Arboretum Ever smce Charles Sprague Sargent visited Japan America, although double-flowered varieties are as an ornamental it does not m 1892, the Arnold Arboretum has had a deep known; and plant appear to be with the Japa- interest m plants from the Far East, primarily particularly popular nese ; it is sometimes planted, however, m temple because the flora of northeastern Asia is strikingly and city gardens, especially m Tokyo, where it is northeastern North America. Over the hke that of not an uncommon plant, and where beautiful old years, several members of the Arboretum’s staff specimens are to be seen. have written m passing on camelhas, even though Tsubaki, by which name Camelha japonica is known m is more valued for the oil which camellias are not hardy m Jamaica Plam. Three Japan, is from its seeds than for the of its from those follow. pressed beauty excerpts writings flowers. This oil, which the other species of Camellia also produce, is used by the women in Charles dressmg their hair, and is an article of much com- Sprague Sargent mercial importance. The wood of Camellia is on Camellia in Japan close-gramed, moderately hard, and light-colored, turning pmk with exposure; it is cut mto combs, In 1892, Charles Sprague Sargent, first direc- although less valued for this purpose than box- wood, and is manufactured mto numerous small tor of the Arnold collected Arboretum, plants articles of domestic use. Sasan-kuwa, Camelha ten in He wrote for weeks Japan. several sasanqua, a small bushy tree of southern Japan articles on his travels for Garden and Forest, and Chma, is perhaps more commonly encoun- the magazine he had founded in 1888. Later, tered m Japanese gardens than the Tsubaki, and m the first week of November it was the accounts were combined and published ~ust begin- mng to open its delicate pink flowers m the gar- m book form as Forest Flora of japan. Sargent dens of Nikko, although the mght temperature discussed Camellla as follows: was nearly down to the freezmg pomt. In southern Japan the Camelha is a common for- -Excerpted from Forest Flora of Japan: est-plant from the sea-level to an altitude of 2,500 Notes on the Forest Flora of Japan, by feet, on the east coast growing as far north as Charles Sprague Sargent (Boston and latitude thirty-six, and nearly two degrees farther New York Houghton, Mifflm, 1894), on the west coast. Here it is a dwarf bush only page 17. two or three feet high, although where the soil and chmate favor it, the Camelha becomes a tree thirty or forty feet tall, with a handsome straight Ernest H. Wilson on the trunk a foot m diameter, covered with smooth Introduction of Camellias to pale bark hardly distmguishable from that of the Beech. In its wild state the flower of the Camellia the West is red, and does not fully expand, the corolla retammg the of a cup until it falls. In shape Japan, E. H. who was affiliated with the certamly less attention has been paid to the Wilson, improvement of the Camellia than in Europe and Arnold Arboretum from 1906 until his death in 1930, made six collecting trips to the Ori- ent between 1899 and 1919. He writes as fol- Opposite A Specimen of Camellia japonica Gromng in Ongata mllage, Honshu, Japan. Thirty-five feet tall and lows on the introduction of camellias to the mth a trunk three feet in girth at its base, this specimen West: has attained true tree form. Photographed m Apnl 1914 by Ernest H Wilson. Photograph from the Archives of Known to the Japanese as Tsubakki, the Camellia the Arnold Arboretum. was long ago chnstened the Japan Rose, a very 18 appropriate name. It attracted the attention of the the explanation is simple. In Japan the Tsubakki earhest foreign visitors to Japan, and Kaempfer was regarded with superstitious awe by the war- wrote about it and pictured it m his book pub- nor or Samurai class. The color of the flower is lished in 1712. Just when or by what means it was red, and it has a bad habit of falling off at the neck conveyed to Europe we do not know, but it is on almost as soon as its petals are expanded. The record that it was cultivated m England before color suggested blood to the Samurai and the fall- 1739 by Lord Petre. Very probably it went first en flower a human head severed from the body, from Japan carried by Dutch traders to Batavia, and so to those who lived by the sword the Tsu- thence to Holland m the same manner as the bakki symbolized their probable fate by decapi- Camphor-tree, Chrysanthemum, Azalea mdlca, tation. One sees the plant m Japanese gardens and a number of other plants. Be that as it may, it today and one or two distinct varieties are grown, was grown m many of the best gardens of Europe but the Japanese really favor another species ~C. toward the close of the 18th Century. It is figured sasanqua/.... On the other hand, the Chmese in that wonderful old publication, The Botamcal appear to have no superstitious dread of this plant. Magazine, in its second volume, plate 42 ~1788/, It was cultivated m Chma’s nurseries, temple and the flower pictured is exactly that of the wild grounds, and gardens of the wealthy. Evidently species. quite a number of varieties were grown m Chmese It would appear, therefore, that up to that date gardens, for we find the old East India ships plymg little or no improvement in the Camelha had tak- between Canton and England carrying Camellia en place. Considering what happened withm the plants back to their friends and patrons. Through next few years, this may at first seem strange, but this means eleven well-marked varieties were m cultivation m England in 1812; by 1819 the number had so increased and the plant established itself so firmly m popular estimation that Samuel Curtis pubhshed a special monograph, elephant folio size, with eight pages of text, enumerating twenty-one varieties and illustrated by five beautifully colored plates, one of which is reproduced here. The artist, Miss Clara M. Pope, evidently possessed great ability, for her drawmgs are admi- rably done and the coloring is remarkably good. This monograph is interesting as bemg about the only one of this size devoted to a single genus of flowenng trees. As different varieties blossomed they were figured m the current magazines, which helped mcrease their popularity. Early m the 19th Century nurserymen began the raising of Camellias from seeds. Later the intercrossing of varieties was diligently and suc- cessfully carried out and many hundreds of sorts resulted. As the Victorian age approached its optimum the breeders of Camelhas lost sight of everything else but the regularity of the blossom and, moreover, kept the plants trimmed mto ovoid masses, which in the end brought about a revo- lution. The old-fashioned varieties of Camellia, like ’Alba Plena’, ’Lady Hume’s Blush’, pnm, stiff, and sohd, not inappropriately typify the penod; indeed, this type of Camellia might well be its floral emblem. The single varieties with their cupped blossoms, their abundant yellow-anthered stamens, and the semi-double forms had passed Camellia japonica as depicted m Curtis’s Botamcal out of fashion m favor of the severely double, reg- Magazine m 1788. ular shaped blossom types. 19 One of the earhest introductions from China ket either as shapely shrubby bushes, beautifully was known as the Warratah or Anemone Flower, cultivated in attractive flower pots, or as cut and very beautiful it was with its mass of stamens branches. Red and white forms are not often seen partially converted mto narrow petals. This was dunng the holiday season. The larger shrubs are the forerunner of many similar varieties, and this expensive. class together with the smgle-flowered forms is This flower, as mentioned above, is extensively commg back mto fashion. used as a floral offering to the temple gods when -Excerpted from House e.J Garden, Vol- special requests for the New Year are presented. It ume 57, Number 3 (March 1930). may be mentioned also in passmg that this flower is never worn as an ornament in a lady’s hair, for the large buds of the Camellia take a whole Camellias and the Chinese year to open. To the Chinese this would symbolize the fact that a woman would have to wait one New Year whole year for a son-much too long a penod- and so the Camellia is not used by women as a floral Chmese New Year falls on February 9th m decoration. 1986. The camellia, like many other plants, -Excerpted from Arnoldia, Vol- was traditionally used in China to decorate ume 2, Number 1 (February 13, 1942). homes, shops, boats, etc., during the New Year celebration. Franklin P. Metcalf, a research associate, writing m the February 13, 1942, issue of Arnoldia, descmbed the use of camellias in Canton, China, nearly half a century ago. This year, New Englanders can view camellias in flower during February at the Lyman Estate in Waltham, Massachu- setts, and at the Massachusetts Camellia Society’s annual meeting m Jamaica Plain. For details, see the "New England Horticul- tural Calendar" published in this issue of Arnoldia. Metcalf wrote as follows in 1942: One of the most mterestmg customs m Canton, Chma, is that connected with the Chmese New Year, a variable date which may occur, according to the foreign calendar, some time during the month of January or February.

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