Hildreth's "Japan as It Was and Is": A Handbook of Old Japan, Volume 2 (of 2)Hildreth, Richard
History
Hildreth's "Japan as It Was and Is": A Handbook of Old Japan, Volume 2 (of 2)
Hildreth, Richard
Japan -- History
[46] Kämpfer who describes the Camellia under the Japanese name of
_Tsubaki_, speaks of it as a large shrub, almost a tree. Thunberg
represents it as attaining the size of a large tree, exceedingly common
in groves and gardens, and a very great favorite, as well for its
polished, evergreen leaves as from the size, beauty, and variety of
its blossoms, which appear from April to October, single and red in
the wild ones, but double and of several colors, red, purple, white,
etc., in the cultivated varieties, of which the Japanese assured
Kämpfer there were several hundreds. Siebold describes the wild kind as
a small tree, growing in clumps and thickets, often with many shoots
from the same root, from fifteen to twenty feet high; while a much
larger size is attained by the cultivated kinds. The name of Camellia
was given to the genus by Linnæus, in honor of George Joseph Kamel,
a Jesuit missionary, who sent to Ray descriptions of the plants of
the Philippine Islands, published by him at the end of his “History
of Plants.” The single-flowering variety was introduced into England,
about 1739, by Lord Petre probably from China, of which it is a native,
in common with quite a number of plants, to which the specific epithet
_Japanese_ has been applied. As late as 1788 (as appears from Curtis’
“Botanical Magazine,” vol. i) it was very rare and costly. Down to that
time it had been treated as a stove-plant, but soon after, on Curtis’
suggestion, it was introduced into conservatories, of which it soon
became the pride, and was even found hardy enough to bear the winter in
the open air. Previous to 1806 a number of varieties were imported from
China; many others were produced in Europe, and already by 1825 these
varieties had become very numerous (see “Botanical Magazine,” vols. xl
and lvi). The _Camellia sasankwa_ is smaller, with smaller leaves and
flowers, very closely resembling the tea-plant; and, in packing their
teas, the Chinese are in the habit of putting some of the blossoms into
the chests. It is extensively cultivated for its oil, in China as well
as in Japan.
[47] The Japanese paper, as well for writing and printing as for the
household uses to which it is so extensively put, is manufactured from
the bark of the young twigs of the paper mulberry (_Morus papyrifira_).
Kämpfer has given a particular account of it in the appendix to his
work. That account, which, now that so many experiments are on foot for
the manufacture of paper, may suggest some useful hints, is abridged by
Thunberg as follows:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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