Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/813

Rh once set agoing, merely because ho is too stupid to turn aside, and then should some tempting thorn or green branch allure him out of the path, continues to walk on in the new direction simply because he is too dull to turn back into the right road. In a word, he is from first to last an undomesticated and savage animal rendered service able by stupidity alone, without much skill on his master s part, or any co-operation on his own, save that of an extreme passiveness. Neither attachment nor even habit impress him ; never tame, though not wide-awake enough to be exactly wild.&quot; So also Sir S. Baker, in his recent work The Albert Nyanza, bears testimony to its extreme dulness, for while other ruminants in feeding select wholesome herbs, the camel is stupid enough to eat indiscriminately every green vegetable ; it is thus often poisoned through eating a plant known to the Arabs as &quot; camel poison,&quot; and on this account it is customary to set watchers over them while grazing in districts where this plant is found. The camel, however, is revengeful, and in satisfying this passion is said to display a far-thoughted malice scarcely consistent with the extreme stupidity attributed to it by Palgrave. Of this vindictiveness the camel driver is well aware, and of the certainty that sooner or later it will seek revenge ; accordingly it is customary for the person who has reason to fear its malice to throw his clothes before the camel, meanwhile concealing himself until the infuriated animal has expended its rage in tossing and trampling upon them, when the injury, real or supposed, is immediately forgotten. The camel is probably a native of the desert countries of the south-west of Asia, whence it has spread into most of the arid regions of the eastern hemisphere, carrying with it wherever it goes a mark of its desert origin in the antipathy which it shows to cross a stream of water. It has lately been introduced into Australia, the great central desert of which was recently crossed by Warburton with a caravan of camels. It has now also obtained a footing in the New World, ten camels having been landed at New York some years ago, all of them, however, with the exception of a single male and female, dying soon after. The surviving pair were transferred to Nevada, where the soil was sandy and sterile, producing abundance of prickly shrubs which no other animal would touch, but on which the pair of camels flourished and bred. This female has already given birth to twenty-four young, all of which are still (1875) alive, and some of these having also bred, there are now ninety-six camels, all, with the exception of the original couple, born in Nevada. In Europe the camel is only reared in the neighbourhood of Pisa, having been introduced there by one of the dukes of Tuscany, and is employed as a beast of burden, but is said to be gradually deteriorating. There are two species of camel the Arabian and the Bactrian. The former or single-humped species (Camelus dromedarius) is found in greatest perfection in Arabia, whence it has spread eastwards to India, where it is now extensively used, although the stony nature of much of the ground it has to pass over does not give it in India that superiority over other beasts of burden, which it undoubt edly possesses in desert countries. It seems to have spread westwards with the Koran along the North African shores, and to have been introduced by the Moors into Spain, where, however, it did not succeed in establishing itself. It also accompanied the followers of Mahomet into Euro pean Turkey. In Arabia several breeds, each possessing special qualities, are carefully cultivated The chief of these aro the thick-built, heavy-footed, and slow-paced variety, used for carrying heavy loads, and the dromedary a name often applied to all the members of the single-humped species, but properly belonging only to a thin, comparatively elegant, and fine-haired breed, celebrated for its fleetness, carrying its rider when necessary 100 miles a day. The dromedary, says Palgrave, &quot; is the race-horse of its species,&quot; and the difference between it and the heavy variety is exactly the same &quot;as between the race-horse and a hack.&quot; Another breed, belonging to a tribe of Arabs who dwell near the western shores of the Pied Sea, is specially adapted for journeying with loads over mountainous districts, and Baker, who made use of them, states that they accomplished feats in mountain climbing which would have been impossible to any other domestic animal so loaded. The Bactrian or two-humped camel (Camel us ladrianus) is a somewhat larger and more robust species, and is much rarer than the Arabian. It is found throughout the region lying to the north and east of that inhabited by the dromedary, from the Black Sea to China and northward to Lake Baikal, where in winter it sustains severe ccld, subsisting mean while upon the leaves and twigs of the willow and birch. The pads on its feet are harder than in the other species, and are thus better fitted to bear the changes wrought on the soil by the frequent alternations of rain and drought, while its fur is also thicker and more plentiful. In Central Asia both species occur, and hybrids are not uncommon, the latter being, it is alleged, occasionally fertile among themselves.  CAMELLIA, the name of a genus of Ternttromiacece, remarkable for its evergreen laurel-like foliage, and its handsome rose-like flowers, whence the common species, C. japonica, is sometimes called the Japan rose. This is an evergreen shrub of remarkably hardy constitution, so that in our climate it flourishes perfectly in a cold green house ; indeed, in the south and west of England, and in other favourable situations, the plant itself is hardy, and only suffers from frost in regard to the damage done to its flowers, which are naturally developed very early in the spring, and are therefore liable to suffer injury from spring frosts. The plant had been cultivated by the Japanese and Chinese long previous to its introduction to our gardens from China in 1739, and, in consequence, numerous double- flowered varieties were at that time known, of which about two dozen sorts were introduced from China, chiefly be tween 1806 and 1824, some two or three others having been obtained so early as 1792-4. This number of varieties has now been very considerably increased by the production of European seedlings, so that several hundreds are figured in a publication called Nouvelle Iconographie dcs Camellias, specially devoted to their illustration. The plant seeds freely in the climate of Italy and the south of Europe, and thence many first-rate sorts have been obtained. The original type of C. japonica forms a dense Inithy evergreen, abundantly clothed with ovate acuminate glossy leaves, and decorated with sessile single red flowers com posed of from five to seven (nominally five) broadly obovate rosy carmine petals, which expand into a cup-shaped flower, and surround a circlet of numerous monadelphous stamens, within which a feAv free stamens, two to each petal, are produced. These stamens afford a fine contrast to the broad spreading petals. This form, or one but slightly removed from it, is still cultivated in gardens, as a stock on which to graft the double-flowered sorts, these only, in a general way, being now prized. There are, however, some few r exceptions, as, for example, the single white, Avhose large flowers, with their conspicuous stamens, are extremely handsome when associated with the rich-looking dark green foliage. The name Camellia was given to these plants by Linnac-us in honour of George Joseph Camellus or Kamel, a Mor avian Jesuit, who travelled in Asia, and wrote a history of the plants of the island of Luzon. In Japan, its native country, the Camellia attains to the size of a large tree, and it is held in high estimation by the Japanese on account of the extreme beauty of its large, showy, and 