Camellia Documents and Events
1700 till 1799

1705 PLU :
Plukenet, Leonard (1642-1706): Amaltheum Botanicum. London 1705.
400 Chinese plants with 200 pictures. Who will search please for Camellias?

1712 KAE :
Kaempfer, Engelbert (1651-1716): Amoenitatum Exoticarum. 912 pp.
Lemgo 1712 . Fasciculus V: Plantarum Japonicarum. In Latin.
Thea japanensis historia, pp 605-631, pl. 606; Ta, Sa, Teh- p.817; Tsubakki- pp. 850-853, pl. 851
Drawings of the Tea plant and Tsubaki (Camellia japonica L.) Very profound description of the history of tea.

1727 SCH :
Scheuchzer (editor): Engelbert Kaempfer: The History of Japan...London 1727
English translation of the unpublished German manuscript. See also (1777 DOH).

1735 LIN :
Linnaeus, Carolus (Karl von Linné): Systema Naturae 1.Ausgabe 1735
first mentioned: Genus Camellia.

1738 LIN
Linnaeus, Carolus (Karl von Linné): Genera Plantarum.
1.Edition 1738
first mentioned: Camellia japonica.

1739
Lord Petre in England introduced the single red Camellia (1819 CUR).
However, both Ehret (1740 EHR) and Edwards (1745 EDW) painted this as a double.

1740 EHR :
Ehret, Georg Dionys.: "Arbor Indica .."
Sketch 169 in the Ehret Collection of Sketches, National Histoty Museum London. Photo Ref. T22169/A.
Watercolor sketch from nature of a double Camellia japonica at Lord Petre's home. Carries some notes by Ehret from 1740, and, after seeing Sloanes original copy of (1712 KAE), from 1741.
Reprinted in "die Kamelie" Nr. 2. 2001).

1745
Two Camellias were brought to Linnaeus in Upsala by Lagerstoom, a director of the Swedish East India Company, obtained in China, sold to him as tea. They flowered as japonicas (1819 CUR). See also the remarks of Dohm in: (1777 DOH, p.463).

1745 EDW :
Edwards, George E.: "The peacock pheasant of China"
Table 67 in (1747 EDW), carries the note: "Published December 1745, G.E.Edwards". (1955HUM). Fasan against a double Camellia japonica at Lord Petre's home.

1747 EDW :
Edwards, George E.: A natural History of Birds. Vol 2, pl. 67

1746 EHR :
Ehret, Georg Dionysius: Sketch of a Camellia. Around 1746-48.
In the British Museum of Natural History. Partly coloured.

1753 LIN :
Linnaeus, Carolus (Karl von Linné): Species Plantarum. 1.Ausgabe 1753.
again mentioned: Camellia japonica.

1763
Linnaeus got several teaplants through the Captain Ekeberg, Oct.3d 1763, which were planted in the Botanical Garden of Upsala, where they prospered well. (1777 DOH, p.463).
According to this source, this is the first prospering tea plant in Europe.

1769 LIN :
Linnaeus, Carolus (Caroli a Linné): Amoenitates Academicae. Volumen Septimum. Holmiae 1769
Potus Theae, Quem, Praeside D. D. Car. v. Linné, Proposuit Petrus C. Tillaeus. Vestmannus. Upsaliae 1765, Decembr. 7. In Latin. pp 236-253. Plate IV, p. 253: Thea bohea.
Description of Tea and it's introduction to Sweden (Rep. 2001 PEP).

1769
Linnaeus got another 'teaplant' from Jussieu, of France, which flowered as a japonica. At last he got the tea plant by the Captain Ekeberg. (1819 CUR).
However, (1777 DOH, p.463) reports that Linnaeus got the tea plant in 1763!

1776 LET
John Coackley Lettsom and John Ellis: Geschichte des Thees und Koffees. Leipzig 1776.
Translated from the original English edition, which pictures the tea plant in Stonhouse (Earl of Northcumberland).
So far the best description of tea. The translator added another picture by Fougeroux, originally published in the Journal de Physique by Rozier. Bibliographic data on the Enlish and French edition are welcome.

1777 DOH
1777-79 Dohm, Christian Wilhelm (editor): Kaempfer, Engelbert: Geschichte und Beschreibung von Japan.
Lemgo 1777 and 1779, 2 volumes. Reprint 1980 Springer Verlag Heidelberg.
Critical German edition from Kaempfer's German original manuscript and the English edition from (1727 Sch). The 'History of Japanese Tea' pp 442 - 461 with two illustrations: Tea Plant and Demon Darma, is the translation of the Latin text in (1712 Kae). On page 135 Kaempfer states that the Japanese count more than 900 different Tsubaki (Camellia japonica L.) varieties. Remarks of Dohm on more recent publications about Tea: pp 461 - 464.

1781 JAC :
Jacquin, Nikolaus J. von: Icones plantarum rariorum. Vindobonae 1781-93
First coloured illustration of a single red C. japonica

1784 LAM :
Lamarck: Camelli du Japon.
Encyclopedie Methodique, p. 566, Padoue 1784 .
(also: Lamarck, Dict. encycl. tom. 1. p. 572)
Description of C. japonica

1784 THU :
Thunberg, Carolus Petrus: Flora Japonica. Lipsiae 1784
Description of C. japonica and sasanqua, first illustration of C. sasanqua (B/W).

1786 TRE : (see).
Trew, Jacobus: Hortus Nitidissimus.. sive Amoenissimorum Florum Imagines. Nuernberg 1786.
Camellia I. Tsabekki frutex flore roseo, fructu pyriformi tricocco.
Strange illustration of a double Camellia, painted by Ehret (1740 EHR).

1788 CAV :
Cavanilles, Antonio J.: Monadelphiae classis dissertationes decem. Parisiis, 1788.
Botanical drawings of C. japonica and C. sasanqua.

1788 CUR (see)
Curtis, William: Curtis' Botanical Magazine Vol.II, t.42, London 1788
Wonderful coloured picture of a single red Cam. jap. In most copies of the magazine the colour is rather rose than red.. In all other contemporary colored versions of the single red, the red is just like what we would expect from the wild type. How the Curtis camellia, which in addition seems to me a bit larger and fancier than the wild type, fits into the possible camellia scenery, cannot be clarified from todays knowledge.

1793 SCH :
Schneevoogt, G. Voorhelm, Schwegmann, Hendrik: Icones Plantarum Rariorum. Haerlem, 1793.
Coloured illustration and description of single red Camellia japonica.

1794 THU :
Thunberg, Carl Peter, (1743-1828):
Icones plantarum Japonicarum: Insulis Japonicis annis 1775 et 1776 ... Upsaliae, 1794-1805, Facsimilis: Tokyo, 1934

1796 BAT :
Batsch, Dr. August Johann Georg Carl: Der geoeffnete Blumengarten. Weimar, 1796
Coloured copy of (1788 CUR)

1797 AND :
Andrews, Henry C.: Andrews' Botanist's Repository
Vol.I t.25, 1797 C. Alba Plena coloured
Vol.II t.91, 1797 C. Variegata coloured

1799 SEI :
Seidel, Johann Heinrich:
Synonymisches Verzeichnis aller im Churfuerstl. Orangengarten zu Dresden befindlichen Gewaechse.
Dresden 1799 ( Saechsische Landesbibl. 39. 8° 7351 )
2.Aufl. 1806; 3.Aufl. 1812
Camellia japonica is mentioned.