NEW GARDEN PLANT, 
HOYA imperialis. 
H. imperialis (Hoya vere); caule volubili, petiolis costáque tomentosis, 
foliis coriaceis angustě oblongis ciliatis glabris aveniis apiculatis apice 
recurvis basi rotundatis v. leviter cordatis, pedunculis tomentosis pen- 
dulis foliis brevioribus, umbellis multifloris, sepalis ovatis obtusis tomen- 
tosis, corolle maximee lobis triangularibus stellatim patulis ciliatis intus 
levibus fauce tomentosa, coronse staminez foliolis compressis bilobis 
lobo interiore acuto subdentato postico ovato obtuso. 
This is the most noble climbing plant we have ever seen. 
Beautiful specimens in flower have for some months been in 
our possession, sent from Borneo by Mr. Lowe, Junr. ; but we 
have refrained from publishing an account of them, under 
the supposition that no living plant had reached England. 
We are now, however, able to state, that the plant is in the 
possession of Mr. Lowe of Clapton, who has already begun to 
put it into the trade. Imagine, then, a true Hoya, with woolly 
stems, leaves six inches long, and clusters of the most magni- 
ficent flowers, forming a diadem of ten rays; each flower fully 
three inches in diameter, and with the delicate texture of the 
common Hoya carnosa, and he will have some notion of this 
superb species. In Mr. Lowe's letter from Sarawak, dated 
January 12, 1846, we have the following account of its discovery. 
“ On the next day, when in the territory of the Gumbang 
Dyaks, I found another curious plant, belonging to Asclepiads; 
it is an epiphytal climber; there was but one individual, 
growing from the decayed part of a tree, also overhanging the 
river. The flowers are large and in umbels; the leaves are 
leathery ; and the stem abounds in a white, perhaps acrid, 
juice. The contrast between the purple of the petals and the 
ivory white of the parts of fructification renders it highly 
beantiful.” 
This species is certainly new, unless it should be the 
Asclepias Sussuela of Roxburgh, a Moluccan plant, said to 
have flowers nearly three inches in diameter; but that 
botanist cites, without any doubt, the Corona Ariadnes of 
Rumphius, which has flowers only as large as a shilling 
(denarius), and therefore cannot be the species now described. 
Neither can this be the Hoya speciosa of Decaisne, which has 
the flowers velvety inside, and only one inch and three-quarters 
across ; nor the Hoya grandiflora of Blume, which has leaves 
woolly beneath. Those glorious species are still to be im- 
ported, one from Java, the other from Amboyna, and either 
would form an invaluable addition to our gardens. 
