HOYA BELLA. 
(Beautiful Hoya.) 
Class. 
PENTANDRIA. 
Order. 
DIGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
ASCLEPIADACEiE. 
( Asclepiads, Veg. King.) 
Generic Character. — Calyx short, five-leaved. 
Corolla rotate, five-cleft. Stamineous Corona five- 
leaved; leaflets depressed, spreading, fleshy, drawn 
each out into a tooth on the inner side, which lies on 
the anthers. Anthers terminated by a membrane. 
Pollen masses fixed by the base, connivent, compressed. 
Stigma depressed, mutic or sub-apiculated. Follicles 
smooth. Seeds comose. — Don's St/st. 
Specific Character. — Stems branching, weak but 
copiously leafy. Leaves opposite, scarcely so big as 
those of the large-leaved Myrtle, and nearly of the 
same shape, ovate, but fleshy, one-nerved, dark green 
above, pale beneath. Peduncles lateral, about as long 
as the leaf, each bearing a corymb of from eight to ten 
flowers. Calyx a little downy, of five elliptical, 
spreading sepals. Corolla rotate, convex, nearly white, 
waxy, with five acute angles rather than lobes ; alter- 
nating with these angles, and occupying the centre of 
the flower, are the five leaflets of the Staminal crown, 
ovate or rather cymbiform, concave and deep purple on 
the upper face, pale below.— Hooker in Bot. Mag., 4402. 
Authorities and Synonymes. — Hoya, R. Brown,- 
Asclepias, Linn.; Hoya bella, Hooker in Bot. Mag., 
t. 4402. 
The old Hoya carnosa, with its pendulous corymbs of wax-like flowers, replete 
with honey, and filling the house it inhabits with its rich, but peculiar fragrance, is 
too well known to need description. 
Many newly-discovered species have of late years been introduced, and some 
have flowered, but with two exceptions none have equalled the old favourite above 
mentioned. 
Our present subject, however, is superior in every point of view, the flowers for 
delicacy and beauty surpass all the kinds yet known ; the habit of the plant is not 
climbing, nor does its general growth at all resemble that of H. carnosa ; the 
branches are slender, numerous, and thickly clothed with small leaves, scarcely so 
large as those of the broad-leaved Myrtle, and not much unlike them in form. 
The flowers are not only beautiful individually, but the corymbs are viewed to 
great advantage, from the circumstance of so large a proportion of green foliage 
forming a dense back ground ; the petals are of a very pure white, and beautifully 
frosted ; the central corona of fructification is of a rich carmine purple, and forms a 
very striking and lively contrast to the petals. Altogether it is a plant of first' 
