Abstract: The genus of Camellia consists of over 200 species, its distributing centre is in the south and southwest part of China. Morinaga firstly did the cytological studies of Camellia in 1929, who examined the chromosome number of C. sinensis and C. japonica and confirmed the basic number n = x = 15；then, C. sinensis var. macro phylla 2n=45, 2n = 60, to be polyploid were reported by Karasawa Simura in 1935；from 50th to 60th decade the research on chromosome number of Camellia had developed and 14 species were reported. Since 1970, a series works on cytological studies of Camellia either the wild species or the cultivated variaties had been done by K. Kondo.

Key words: Camellia