Reine des Belges

Poiteau, 1835, Annales de la Société d’Horticulture de Paris, 16:350. Description not seen. Verschaffelt, 1849, Nouvelle Iconographie, Book X, pl.IV: This camellia come from the old and famous ‘Donckelaeri’ (Masayoshi), through the care of Mr Donkelaar, chief gardener of the botanical gardens of Ghent, pollinated by an unknown variety. The blossom is rather large, of a cherry-red colour, deeper at the base of the petals, with a distinct and rather broad white margin. They are regularly imbricated, wide, rounded at the circumference, small, narrow and lanceolate at the centre, all distinctly veined a deeper shade. Orthographic variant: ‘Reine de Belges’. Note: the Poiteau date of 1835 is too early to apply to a seedling of ‘Donckelaeri’ so must refer to another unidentified cultivar.