572 Flora of the Malayan Peninsula. 



14. HoYA PARASITICA, Wall, in Wight Contrib. 37 (1834), and Cat. 

 8159. A stout climbing epiphytic shrub, creeping over the trunks and 

 branches of trees and giving off roots from every part (Eoxb.) ; 

 branches smootli, pale, fleshy. Leaves fleshy, thick, very variable ; 

 ovate or elliptic or lanceolate, acute or acuminate at apex, rounded or 

 almost cordate to cuneate at base ; glabrous on both surfaces ; margins 

 recurved ; 3 to 7 in. long, 1-5 to 3 in. broad ; 5-nerved from the base, 

 the outermost pair thin, forming loops near the margins, from the 

 sinuses of which transverse nerves join them to the middle pair; 

 midrib with several transverse nerves also joining the middle pair, which 

 have one or two loops near the tip, all raised on both surfaces when dry, 

 as are the other irregular reticulations ; petiole very thick, -25 to 1 in. 

 long. Umbels many-flowered, racemose, on short or long (reaching 4 in.), 

 thick (often nearly -25 in. in diam.), tubercular rachises at the ends of 

 stout 1 to 3 in. long axillary or lateral peduncles which are solitary or 

 in pairs ; pedicels slender, -5 in. long or longer ; buds turbinate, 

 5-angled ; flowers pearly- white with a pink centre, very fragrant. 

 Calyx membranous ; lobes ovate, acute; scales very small. Corolla '3 in. 

 broad ; lobes cordate, glabrous, inflexed, with the corona-processes pro- 

 jecting between them. Corona of 5 membranous 2-lobed processes, 

 which are horny and shining when dry, and white with pink tips ; the 

 lower lobes ovate, spreading, grooved beneath; the upper lobes erect, 

 acute. Staminal-colwnn short ; anther-cells divergent ; appendages 

 membranous, acute; pollen-masses oblong, truncate, thin on the 

 outer margin, attached by short thick caudicles to the conical pollen- 

 carriers. Style-apex membranous, 5-angled, conical-apiculate. Fruit 

 not kno%vn. Wight Ic. 587 ; Dene, in DC. Prodr. VIII. 637 ; Hook. 

 f. Fl. Br. Ind. IV. 57 ; Prain Beng. Plants 700. H. Hooheriana, Wight 

 Contrib. 37 ; Wall. Cat. 8153 ; Dene. I. c. 636. Hoya sp.. Wall Cat. 

 8153. H. pallida, Lindl. in Bot. Eeg. t. 951 ; Paxt. M. Gard. t. 26, 

 copied in Lemaire Jard. Fleur. t. 64. Asclepias parasitica, Eoxb. Hort. 

 Beng. 20, and M. Ind. II. 42 ; Wight Ic. t. 587. 



Kedah: Eunstler 1829. Penang : at Waterfall, Curtis. Perak: 

 at Sungie Lariit, Wray 2273 ; at Bake Kuran, Scortechini 1626 ; at 

 Ulu Bubong, King's Collector 10316. Malacca: Griffith; Maingay 

 (K.D.) 1126, 1132, 1138. Pahang: Praman, near Pekan, Bidley in 

 Trans. Linn. Soc. Ser. 2, III. 321. Singapore : Bidley 1796, 8070.— 

 DiSTRiB. India (Sikkim, Assam, Sundarbans, Chittagong, Andaman 

 Islands). 



Kunstler describes the colour of the flowers as "white with a pink centre" or 

 "waxy white with a purplish tinge," but Wray says it is "pale greenish-yellow 

 with a few small spots of crimson." Roxburgh, who had it in cultivation, says the 



