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.