iS79-] CULTURE OF HOYA BELLA. 143 



really not quite unknown. Were the thing actually deserving atten- 

 tion, I might point out that some of the matter written against the 

 very idea of its being at all to be believed is really not criticism. 

 Personally, I am quite unknown to any of those whose names have 

 been mixed up with the matter, and have no interest in defending 

 either one side or the other. A. Honeyman. 



Hope Park. 



[We scarcely think the case of the Jasmine, referred to by our correspondent, 

 can be considered a parallel case to the Culford Vine sport. Such sporting as 

 that of a variegated branch appearing on green plants is common enough, and 

 in some cases the insertion of a variegated scion ultimately leads to the stock 

 producing similar variegation, but always the same flower and fruit as the 

 normal green plant. These productions can be perpetuated indefinitely by the 

 ordinary methods of propagation. The Culford sport was said to be a bunch 

 of Golden Champion, produced from the wood and foliage of Trebbiano, which 

 is a very different phenomenon ; and its correctness is doubted, because no par- 

 allel case to it is to be found on record, and because the wood and foliage that 

 were supposed to have produced the said bunch failed to do so again. We not 

 long ago saw a bunch of Trebbiano with such abnormally large berries that it 

 might easily be mistaken for Golden Champion. And we have been eye and 

 ear witness to the very best of judges mistaking Buckland's Sweetwater for Duke 

 of Buccleuch first, and when the judge was contradicted, he said, " Then it is 

 Golden Champion." We have plenty instances of the best of judges making 

 such blunders, but no instance of the fruit of one Vine supposed to be found on 

 the wood and foliage of another, except in the case of the sport in question. 

 —Ed.] 



CULTURE OF HOYA BELLA. 



This beautiful species is popularly known as the honey-plant or wax- 

 flower, and well deserves a place in every collection of stove-plants, 

 however small. Its waxy white flowers, with beautiful rose-coloured 

 centre, are produced very freely from midsummer to far on in 

 the autumn months, and are especially adapted for bouquets, &c, 

 although some object to them for that purpose, owing to the umbels 

 being so stiff-looking ; but that defect can be somewhat remedied by 

 "wiring" the individual flowers — or even two or three can be put 

 together and used towards the centre of the bouquet, where light 

 colours are indispensable, using larger and more dark-coloured flowers 

 toward the extremities. The plant is of a semi-scandent, compact, 

 free-flowering habit, and is very suitable for growing in baskets sus- 

 pended from the roof of the stove just above or near the passages, 

 where the delicate flowers can be easily seen by those walking round 

 the house. The baskets generally used for this purpose are made of 

 stout wire, and are very ornamental. They should be well lined with 

 fresh Sphagnum moss before the soil and plants are put into them ; and 



