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The old name for the camellia was Japan rose. Although the camellia
was imported into 18th-century Europe from China, it came from Japan and
Korea and only appeared in China as a cultivated plant. Clara Maria Pope’s
spectacular painting of it was part of a series for Samuel Curtis’s A Monograph
on the Genus Camellia, in 1817. Her illustration is one of 60 in Botanical
Prints by Eve Robson and Norman Robson (Collins & Brown, pp 128, Pounds
sterling 19.95). Each has a short description of the artist, the history
of the plant’s discovery and the publication in which it appeared.