210 
Greenhouse and Stove Plants. 
HOYA. 
to take out the flowers, and treat as before 
through the summer in stopping, training, 
air, and water. If all goes well, by the 
autumn they will have made growth 18 
inches in length from the base, strong and 
bushy ; harden up by the admission of 
more air after the middle of August, and 
tie with afew thin sticks. With proper 
attention as to water and repotting, when 
such is required, plants so treated will last 
and keep improving for years. 
The natural disposition of this Hovea to 
run up for a considerable height with a 
single stem, renders it, as already said, well 
adapted for occupying a limited space on a 
conservatory roof or as a pillar plant. In 
cases where it is so employed, it should be 
from the seed-pan or cutting-pot trained 
to a single stem, without branching until 
it gets high enough for the place required, 
when the point must be pinched out, as 
the head is formed training it in the 
desired shape. It shows best when allowed 
to grow comparatively loose ; in this way 
it will bloom profusely and ripen quantities 
ot seed, which will, from its scarcity, be of 
considerable value. Any one who has 
never seen the plant so grown can form no 
idea of its beauty and the size it will 
attain. 
H. pungens is somewhat dissimilar to 
the above, very slender in appearance, but 
not so large a grower, and is not fit for any 
purpose other than as a moderate-sized pot 
specimen, for which it is well adapted, its 
colour, also deep bluish purple, harmoni- 
sing well with most other inhabitants of 
the hardwooded house. 
Insects.—So far as we have seen, 
Hoveas are subjects upon which mildew 
will not exist ; nor are they much liable 
to the attacks of insects. Red spider will 
live upon them, but they are not often 
attacked by it ; here, however, as in most 
other cases, prevention is better than cure, 
and this can easily be secured by using the 
syringe well to the underside of the leaves 
once a week, through the hottest part of 
summer. Scale will live and increase fast 
upon them, especially the white species, 
consequently they should never be allowed 
to come in contact with any plant affected 
with this worst of insects. On these, as 
with most hardwooded plants, brown scale 
can be destroyed by washing in the autumn 
when growth is completed, and before the 
bloom is prominent, with insecticide. 
HOYA. 
(Stove. ) 
The individual species of these fine 
flowering plants are very different in their 
appearance, as they also are in the treat- 
ment they require, from the strong-growing, 
heat-loving H. imperialis from Borneo, 
which is a twiner, to the most elegant 
dwarf shrubby H. bella, which hails from 
Taung Kola. They are very distinct and 
beautiful plants, easy of cultivation, and 
have the advantage over many things of a 
twining or climbing habit, in not being 
too rampant in growth—consequently the 
twining species are suitable for places 
where plants of larger size would be less 
manageable. They are appropriate for 
clothing pillars and rafters, or for training 
longitudinally over the paths in the stove. 
Grown in the latter position their flowers 
droop so as to be seen to the best advantage. 
In most of the species they are borne in 
bunches, upon stout, persistent spurs, that 
issue from the base of the leaf-stalks at 
intervals up the stems. These make their 
appearance as the young shoots are formed, 
lasting for many years, ahd from them are 
emitted the flowers—two or three times in 
the course of the season in the case of some 
kinds. There is one matter that should be 
observed in the cultivation of these per- 
sistent-spurred kinds : that is, if the flowers 
are cut for bouquets or similar purposes, on 
no account should the spurs be removed 
with them, or it necessarily follows that 
the blooming capabilities are so far reduced 
as to make the future supply be dependent 
on the formation of fresh spurs, which are 
only produced upon the young shoots. It 
is requisite to mention this for the guidance 
of beginners in the culture of Hoyas, as we 
have known large specimens, when in the 
hands of the inexperienced, completely 
stripped of their blooming spurs, which had 
taken years to form, causing them to be 
comparatively flowerless until fresh growths 
had been made—thus entailing much dis- 
appointment, as in most cases it necessitated 
the plants being headed down. 
Amongst the twining species that need a 
warm temperature the foremost place is 
held by H. imperialis. This is a native of 
Borneo ; it is a strong-growing plant with 
ample thick leathery leaves, and bears 
very large bunches of pale brown and 
yellow flowers. With this may be as- 
sociated, in the general treatment they 
require, the Cinnamon-leaved Hoya, H. 
cinnamomifolia, a plant of medium growth, 
with pale green and chocolate flowers ; the 
bell-flowered Hoya, H. campanulata, which 
bears greenish-yellow flowers : both these 
are from Java; and H. Cunninghamii, also 
a handsome species. They strike freely at 
almost any time of the year, but if put in 
about April get well established in their 
pots before the summer is over ; if at this 
