Tas. 4684. 
HOYA -FRATERNA. 
Thick-leaved Hoya. 
ts 
Nat. Ord. ASCLEPIADEZ.—PENTANDRIA DiGyYNIA. 
Gen. Char. (Vide supra, Tas. 4347.) 
Hoya (Physostemma) fraterna; foliis amplis ellipticis crassissime coriaceis a 
acutis basi subcordatis et calloso-glandulosis obscure remote penninerviis 
margine recurvis, petiolo costaque subtus pracipue crassis, pedunculo 
folio 3-4-plo breviore, umbella multiflora compacta, sepalis ovalibus ob- 
tusis concavis, corolla rotate lobis deltoideis patenti-recurvis sericeo-velu- 
tinis, coronse staminez foliolis brevi-ovatis apice recto obtuso. 
Hoya fraterna. Blume, Mus. Bot. Lugd. Bat. p. 44. 
A very fine new and very distinct species of Hoya, first de- 
tected in Java by Blume and since by Mr. Thomas Lobb, and | 
sent by him to his employer Mr. Veitch, in whose stove at — 
Exeter it has grown very vigorously and yielded its very hand- 
some flowers during a great part of the summer and autumn. © 
Some of the leaves measure a foot in length: our coloured 
figure is taken from a portion of the plant yielding smaller 
foliage; but these leaves are remarkable no less for their 
great size than they are for their firmness and thickness, and 
the very indistinct remote pinnated nerves, scarcely seen except 
when the leaf is held between the eye and the light, or when 
the leaves are dried for the herbarium; then the shrinking of 
the parenchyma brings the veins more distinctly into view, and — 
shows them to be pinnated, anastomosing, and slender. The 
petioles and costa beneath are peculiarly thick. ‘The upper side 
of the corolla, disc excepted, is downy, or between silky and 
velvety, and of a pale yellowish buff-colour, but five stains or 
spots are seen radiating from the centre towards the sinuses, 
which are always wet and clammy, which clamminess appears to 
be due to a flow of honey from beneath each of the leaves of the 
crown or nectary, and give a rich brown tone of colour to the 
whole umbel of flowers. It was named fraterna by Blume on 
DECEMBER 1st, 1852. 
