208 
Greenhouse and Stove Plants. 
HOVEA, 
insecticide, which the plants should be | 
either dipped in or syringed with, so that 
every portion is reached by the mixture. 
Greenfly sometimes makes its appearance 
on the young shoots, for which either dip 
in tobacco water or fumigate. Should they 
become affected with scale or mealy bug, 
sponging must be resorted to, as, except 
when the plants have been cut back and 
are denuded of their tender foliage, the 
leaves will scarcely bear any dressing strong 
enough to kill the insects. 
HIPPOMANE SPINOSA. 
An erect-growing evergreen stove plant 
that in its native country attains the 
dimensions of a moderate-sized tree. It 
has handsome green foliage, with promi- 
nent spines on the leaves. 
It requires the same treatment as recom- 
mended for Theophrasta, which see. <A 
native of the West Indies. 
HOVEA. 
These beautiful pea-flowered evergreen 
greenhouse plants, natives of New Holland, 
are not difficult to grow, possessing a much 
stronger constitution than the generality of 
subjects from the same region that are 
usually cultivated as pot plants. Hovea 
Celsii, which is the plant more particularly 
treated of here, is one of the most beautiful 
coloured flowering plants we possess ; its 
blossoms are bright bluish purple, pro- 
duced freely from the axils of the leaves of 
the preceding season’s wood. — Its foliage 
and general habit are also quite distinct, 
rendering it a most desirable subject for 
growing in any collection of hardwooded 
plants having pretensions to being com- 
plete. That it is now so seldom seen can 
only be attributed to the great number 
of novelties that within the last quarter of 
a century have been introduced to the 
country, for the time putting many deserv- 
ing plants in the background. These, 
however, must ultimately regain their 
former favour through sheer merit, especi- 
ally this plant, from the fact of its adapta- 
bility to pot specimen culture, and its being 
one of the best plants for growing at the 
end or on the roof of a cool conservatory. 
It is proverbially a slow grower, and with 
fair treatment it will last a long time, not 
being subject to go off quickly from causes 
difficult of explanation. 
In growing the plant up for a specimen 
of the ordinary bush-like shape, two dis- 
tinct methods may be followed. We will 
allude first to the more general way of 
treating it. 
In selecting plants for this method more 
care 1s necessary than with most things to 
secure such as have been stopped not more 
than 3 or 4 inches above the collar, for it 
is a most determined upright grower, and 
if it has been allowed in its first stages to 
run up too high before stopping, the habit 
is hard to correct. 
Hoveas can be increased either by cut- 
tings of the half-ripened shoots or from 
seeds; the latter method is preferable. 
Sow in February, in shallow pans, drained 
and filled with fine peat and sand, covering 
the seeds about a quarter of an inch, press- 
ing the material firmly down. Keep 
slightly moist in an intermediate heat, 
put a sheet of glass over the pans to 
keep the surface moist, and shade with 
tissue paper. As soon as the young plants 
are up remove the glass, but continue the 
shading when the sun is powerful ; keep 
near the light, give some air, and syringe 
overhead, but not so much as to make the 
soil too wet. By the end of July the plants 
should be big enough to put singly into 
small pots, using soil similar to that in 
which the seed was sown; continue the 
treatment to encourage growth until the 
middle of September, when reduce the 
night temperature to 45°, at which keep 
through the winter. About the beginning 
of March pinch out the points to cause the 
plants to break side shoots, and in a few 
weeks afterwards move into 3 or 4 inch 
pots ; treat them subsequently during the 
spring and summer somewhat warmer by 
the admission of less air than requisite for 
larger stock, with a moist condition of the 
atmosphere and a little shade in bright 
weather. When the young shoots formed 
after stopping have made three leaves, 
again pinch ont the points, and_ treat 
through the autumn and winter as before. 
Early in spring give 6-inch pots, and stop 
the strongest shoots at the time of potting. 
The management during the spring should 
be the same as last year, stopping those 
shoots that seem to require it about the 
end of June, and treating onwards through 
the summer as hitherto. The young 
plants should now have eight or ten nice 
shoots. Keep them through the winter 
near the glass in a night temperature of 
40° or 45°. Pick off any flowers they may 
be inclined to produce as early as they are 
large enough to get hold of. As soon as 
they show signs of growth give them a 
shift of an inch and a half or 2 inches: 
the slow growth of the plant will not admit 
of alarge pot. It will grow in either good 
turfy yellow loam or peat—we prefer the 
latter, where it can be had good, possessing 
a fair share of fibre ; to this add one sixth 
