January 2.j 
THE COTTAGE GARDENllR. 
200 
in their proportions to those of the following, cannot be i 
unproductive in any climate. It is a rich alluvial soil, I 
which Mr. Sinclair, in his invaluable Ilortus Gramincus I 
Woburncnsis, gives as being the most fertile for the 
grasses:— 
“ Fine sand, 115; aluminous stones, 70; carbonate of 
i lime, 23; decomposing animal and vegetable matter, 34; 
! silica, 100; alumina, 28; oxide of iron, 13; sulphate of 
lime, 2; soluble, vegetable, and saline matter, 7; loss, 8; 
total, 400.” 
We have already stated what forms it a fertile soil; it 
j may be added, that, to constitute it eminently such, 
much of its earthy particles must be in a minute state 
of division. In the above analysis, 185 parts only were 
separable by sifting through a line searcc, 215 parts 
were impalpable; whereas poorer soils will often have 
300 parts coarse matter to every 100 of finely pulverized 
constituents. 
NEW PLANTS. 
THEIR PORTRAITS AND BIOGRAPHIES. 
The Bell-flowered Hoya ( Iloija campanulata ).— 
Botanical Magazine, t. 4545.—The genus Hoya was 
named by Brown, some eight and forty years ago, in 
honour of Mr. Hoy, F.L.S., then gardener to his (1 race 
the Duke of Northumberland, at Sion House; and cam¬ 
panulata, or bell-shaped, alludes to the conformation of 
the flower of this species, which was first exhibited two 
or three years ago by the spirited firm of Veitch and 
Sous, of Exeter. We have seen the new Hoyas, such as 
bell a, campanulata, and imperialis, which the younger 
Low found in Borneo, and, notwithstanding all that Mr. 
i Appleby has said respecting their different merits when 
! highly cultivated, we must give the palm of preference 
! to the elder plant on which the genus was founded— 
Hoya carnosa —“ the honey plant” of our boyish days; 
and those who have seen it treated as in the days of j 
yore, we are much inclined to think, will be of our 
opinion. The Iloya carnosa, with its thick ivory-like ! 
flowers, from each of which a dew-drop of the purest ! 
nectar—said to be the wine of the heathen gods—hung | 
of a morning, would look down on the subject of our 
present biography with that kind of feeling which “ The 
Authoress of My Flowers” so touchingly dwelt upon the 
other day, with respect to the unsuitable flimsy dresses of 
the present day as compared with the red cloaks and 
hoods of the last century; and well it may! The flowers 
of this Hoya campanulata partake much of the thin 
flimsiness aforesaid, without the gaudiness of colour 
which, in our day, country girls consider the main 
evidence of genteel dress. These flowers are neither 
snow-white, nor milk-white, nor paper-white, nor even 
whitish. Yet, after all, the plant has great merit in 
the sweetness of the flowers. As to the flowers of 
the Hoya imperialis, when we last saw them they 
were too elevated for us to go so near them as to 
find out whether they were -perfumed or otherwise, 
aud we forget if Mr. Appleby said anything on this 
head. 
We should be very much at home if Mr. A. B., or F., 
or, indeed, any of our weekly instructors, were to give a 
chapter on the old Hoya and its garden varieties—if they 
are really so, Pottsii and trinercis, as, before we can give 
a final verdict, we should much like to see them and the 
Imperialis grown side by side under similar circum¬ 
stances. 
The Hoya campanulata is a stove twiner, found wild in the 
mountain copses of Java. Leaves, rather leathery, longish 
oval, and pointed. Flowers on slender drooping stalk, and 
in a globe-form hunch, like the Oueldre rose; calyx, five 
segmented; corolla, above an inch and a quarter in dia¬ 
meter, slightly waxy, more like a broad shallow cup than a 
bell, huff coloured, and its edge cut into five broad lobes, 
with a point in the centre. They are best seen when the 
plant is trained along a rafter. It is propagated like Hoya 
hello, as described at p. 50 of the present volume. 
The Natural Order of which the Hoya is a member is 
Asclepidiads, the characteristics of which is that the pollen 
bags or anthers are, with the stigmata, glued into a con¬ 
solidated mass. The nearest alliance to it of which gar¬ 
deners have much knowledge is Ceropegia, a dingy-flowered 
climber, belonging to what are called succulents. Hoya 
belongs to 5-Pentandria 2-l)iyynia of Linnaeus. 
Prince de Salm’s Opuntia ( Opuntia Salmiana ).— 
Botanical Magazine, t. 4542.—This Indian fig is named 
in compliment to Ilis Highness Prince Salm-Dyck, a 
celebrated German grower of succulent plants, and 
author of a large work with coloured plates on the Cape 
Ficoids, Mesembryacese, Dyckia—a little aloe-like plant, 
and his commemorative genus. Opuntia is a name of 
doubtful origin, but given by Tournel'ort, and probably 
on the old supposition that an Indian fig was Theo¬ 
phrastus’s Opuntia, a view not now entertained by i 
modern botanists, who will have all known species of j 
this large order of succulent plants to be natives of the J 
new world. Cactaceie, or Cactus-worts, is the name of ; 
the Natural Order to which they belong, and to 12 -Ico- 
sawlria l-Monogynia of Linmeus. Curiously enough, j 
the researches of modern science have brought to light i 
