18 Descriptions of Plants belonging to the Genus Hoy a. 



or less from every part fibres resembling those of the Ivy, by 

 which probably, in a wild state, it adheres to the supports to 

 which it is attached. The leaves are simple, opposite, smooth, 

 and fleshy, more or less acuminate, and varying in shape 

 as well as length and breadth in the different species. The 

 peduncles which bear the flowers are produced for the most 

 part from the axillae of the leaves, sometimes they appear on 

 shoots without leaves, which terminate the branches ; they 

 sustain a depressed rachis, from which the flowers arise in a 

 simple umbel. The flower stalk and rachis are permanent, 

 the latter becomes lengthened, and continues to produce the 

 umbels in the flowering season from its extremity. This 

 circumstance makes the careful cultivators of the genus 

 abstain from gathering the blossoms, since each one separated 

 from the plant causes a sacrifice of an umbel which would 

 otherwise last as long as the plant itself. The flowers are 

 more or less fragrant, and are produced in succession, 

 nearly during the whole summer. The stalk of each flower 

 is more than an inch long. The calyx has five small pointed 

 sepals. The corolla is monopetalous, with five divisions, 

 entirely hiding the calyx ; the back or external surface 

 is shining; the divisions when the blossom opens, are 

 fully expanded. In the centre of the flower is a starry, 

 shining, wax-like corona or crown, having five pointed pale 

 segments, coloured in the centre. The stamens are included 

 within the crown. The seed vessels are occasionally pro- 

 duced; they resemble those of an Asclepias, being long 

 follicles, containing an abundance of seeds, furnished with 

 long white down at one end, the mass of which has an ap- 

 pearance of silk. 



