in botany: A genus of the polyandra order, belonging to the monodelphia class of plants; and in the natural method ranking under the 37th order, Columniferae. The calyx is imbricated and polyphyllous, with the interior leaves larger than the exterior ones. Of this genus there is but one species, a native both of China and Japan. Thunberg, in his Flora Japonica, describes it as growing everywhere in the groves and gardens of Japan, where it becomes a prodigiously large and tall tree, highly esteemed by the natives for the elegance of its large and very variable blossoms, and its evergreen leaves; it is there found with single and double flowers, which also are white, red, and purple, and produced from April to October. Representations of this flower are frequently met with in Chinese paintings. With us, the Camellia is generally treated as a house plant, and propagated by layers; it is sometimes placed in the greenhouse; but it appears to us to be one of the most desirable plants imaginable for the conservatory. At some future time it may, perhaps, not be uncommon to treat it as a Lauriflorus or Magnolia: the high price at which it has hitherto been sold, may have prevented its being hazarded in this way. The blossoms are of a firm texture, but apt to fall off long before they have lost their brilliancy; it therefore is a practice with some to stick such deciduous blossoms on some fresh bud, where they continue to look well for a considerable time. Petiver considered this plant as a species of tea-tree; and future observations will probably confirm his conjecture.