This variety is in a section for which the collection records show planting dates of 1998, 2005 or nothing. This variety has no planting date or source listed.

The register entry is:

Reverend John Bennett. (C.japonica), Wilson, 1930, Home and Garden, 57(3):158. Description not seen; Hume, 1931, Azaleas and Camellias, p.33: Double salmon pink to rose-pink with veined petals. Size 11 cm across x 5 cm deep with 13 outer petals in 2 rows averaging 6 cm long; the inner petals, surrounding about 60 stamens, are faintly variegated with white. Leaves long-oval, glossy dark green, undulate, margins shallowly, bluntly serrated, 9.5 cm long x 4.5 cm wide. Plant habit, loose, upright, spreading growth. Blooms mid-season to late. Probably an old Magnolia Garden’s Seedling. See colour pl, Fendig, 1949, American Camellia Catalogue. Abbreviations: ‘Rev J. Bennett’, ‘Rev. John Bennett’. Sport: Reverend John Bennett Variegated. Chinese synonym ‘Liweide’.

The register entry is accompanied by four photographs which show a flower matching the description. The collection plant is therefore something else, being bright red and rather smaller than the size described.

I found it listed, and illustrated, in a 1944 catalogue of the Gerbing Camellia Nursery, Fernandina, Florida. The picture is a good match with my plant here but seems to be at odds with the description given.

Leaves 7-9cm long including 1cm petiole, 3.5-4.5cm wide.