THE FLORIST, 



HOYA BELLA AND MITRARIA COCCINEA. 



In answer to our application, Messrs. Veitch and Son, Nur- 

 serymen, Exeter, have obligingly furnished us with the fol- 

 lowing particulars respecting the subject of our present Illus- 

 tration, and a notice of the services of their collectors, the 

 Messrs. Lobb, which we hope will prove acceptable to our 

 readers. It is an act of simple justice on our part to record 

 the nam.es of those who enrich our collections by their re- 

 searches in foreign lands. Nothing would be more interesting 

 than the publication of extracts from the journals of such en- 

 terprising men. The drawings were made from life, and have 

 been ready some time, but we have not been able to present 

 them before. 



To ourselves it is a pleasing, and to lovers of flowers an in- 

 teresting circumstance, that in your accompanying plate you have 

 most happily succeeded in grouping together two lovely plants, sent 

 to this country from different hemispheres by those ardent and inde- 

 fatigable travellers and brothers, Messrs. William and Thomas Lobb. 



The Hoya^ comes from the Taung Kola mountains, in Moulmein, 

 Straits of Malacca, East Indies; the Mitraria from the island of 

 Chiloe in South America. Both plants are of easy culture ; the former 

 delighting in the heat of the warmest stove, whilst the latter equally 

 luxuriates in the coolest greenhouse or conservatory. 



We find the Hoya succeed admirably in the hottest department 

 of our Orchid-house, planted in a wire basket, in a mixture of 

 chopped sphagnum moss, fibrous peat, leaf-mould, and sand, and 

 suspended from the roof as we do our ^schynanths and the pen- 

 dulous-growing Dendrobes, In this position it produces in great 

 abundance and constant succession, throughout the summer and 

 autumn, its most deliciously scented bunches of crystal-like flowers. 

 Sir W. J. Hooker, in writing of it, calls it " the most lovely of all 

 the Hoyas," " first gem of the air," and hkens it to " an amethyst 

 set in frosted silver." 



* We have reason to fear there is a spurious plant sent out by some parties 

 as this Hoya; it will be well, therefore, for all persons wishing to possess it, to 

 make sure that they get the true Hoya bella of Hooker. 



VOL. III. NO. XXV. B 



