6 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, Apbil 7, 1857. 
mighty building * which so much aroused the attention of 
Europe, and so widely spread the fame and reputation of 
its architect. Its construction has been so often described, 
that a minute description of it again is hardly necessary. A 
good idea of its general appearance may, perhaps, be formed 
by describing it as small sections or portions of the lower 
part of one <Sf the wings of the old Exhibition, to which it 
certainly bears, in some particulars, a strong resemblahce. 
It is sixty feet in length by forty feet in width, and about 
twelve feet in height from the trellised walk inside. It is 
raised upon a basement wall four feet six inches in height, 
in which arc a great number of ventilators, and the house 
is approached by a flight of six steps. We ascend and enter 
the building. It is occupied almost wholly by the tank of 
the Victoria regia , the regal Lily of the tropics. The 
tank is thirty-three feet in diameter, with a smaller one 
within it some fifteen feet across, and four or five feet in 
depth. The plant is usually placed in it about the middle 
of April, and it attains its full growth and is generally 
in flower on the 1st or 2nd of July. The large rose-tinted 
flowers, when fully expanded in the evening, diffuse a fra¬ 
grant and agreeable odour throughout the building. The 
diameter of the largest of its immense leaves last year was 
six feet one inch, and, to give some idea of its rapid growth, 
we may state that one of these leaves increased its diameter 
by one foot nine inches in twenty-four hours. The four 
corners or angles are occupied by small tanks of Nelum- 
biwms , Nympliceas , and other aquatics. These tanks, how¬ 
ever, are now quite dry, and the centre one is filled with 
Camellias, Azaleas, and other greenhouse plants. Nothing, 
in fact, is left except a small plant of the Isolepis pygmeea of 
all the plants that filled and decorated the house during the 
summer. 
Descending the steps we turn to the right, and enter 
the “ old aquatic,” or, in fact, a stove and aquatic com¬ 
bined. It is a ridge-and-furrow curvilinear building, con¬ 
taining a large square tank in the centre, and is somewhat 
celebrated from its having been the house in which the 
Victoria regia first flowered in England. Here are some 
fine plants of the Nymphcea Devoniana , and a quantity of 
other aquatics round the edge of the tank, and supported 
upon inverted pots within it are a number of Ferns, Mosses, 
Marantas, &c., together with some fine plants of Thyrsa- 
cantlms rutilans, which seem to enjoy the situation. This 
house is profusely furnished with creepers, and on the 
tivllis at the back large trusses of the beautiful Ipomcea 
Horsfailice , with its rich glowing flowers and deep black 
buds, appear to great advantage. 
Leaving this house, upon our right are the pits for 
bedding plants, a large span greenhouse and stove for 
growing specimens for other houses, and a small propa¬ 
gating house, in which, among other choice plants, we 
observed the Ouvirandra fenestralis, or Lattice-plant, with 
ilscurious network outlines of a leaf; a vigorous plant of 
tlie Brownea Ariza, and another of B. speciosa; the fine- 
leaved Locheria magnijica ; the red-veined Ilamadictyon 
nutans, and perhaps the prettiest of all miniature variegated 
plants, the little Soncrila margaritacea. —J. H. C. 
Error.— At page 426, column 2, line 14 from the bottom, 
“yards” has been inserted instead of “feet.” It should 
have been “330 feet in length,” and “ 7 feet in breadth.” 
(To be continued ,.) 
HOYA BELLA. 
At page 399 of the volume just closed of The Cott; 
Ci ardener I see my name is brought in question, by “ Ci 
Nulli,” respecting the remarks on Hoya bella wh 
appeared at page 202 of the same volume. “ Cedo Nun 
has fallen into an error respecting the statements I 
°rth m those remarks, and perhaps I cannot do better tl 
to explain to “Cedo Nulli” the whole history of the “ 
of sunk plants,” and likewise give a little information ab 
the second plant which I had, of which “ Cedo Nulli ” 
made no mention. 
I bought a small plant of H. bella in the autumn of IS 
* The Exhibition of 1851. 
and grew it into a good-sized plant. In May, 1854, this Hoya 
was staged as one of twelve plants which took the first prize 
at the Leeds Horticultural Exhibition. If “ Cedo Nulli ” 
saw the plant then I have no doubt but he admired it, as 
well as most other people who saw it. It was grown on its 
own roots, and on a single stem, but potted in the usual 
way, viz., the collar rather below the soil, which is a bad 
practice, as I found out to my sorrow; for I had not got it 
home from the Show a fortnight before the plant was to all 
appearance dead. I would have willingly given up the 
prize it had played such a conspicuous part in helping me to j 
take to have saved my plant. I took it to the potting bench, 
with the intention of throwing it away after satisfying j 
myself, if possible, what was the cause of its going off so 
suddenly. I found the bark round the collar of the plant ' 
quite decayed, and the stem dead, although the branches ; 
had some life remaining in them. The idea struck me that i 
probably these branches would strike root if treated as ! 
cuttings. This was no sooner thought of than done. I 
cut them off above the dead part, and put them into a small i 
propagating box at one end of the stove. In less than one 
month several of the largest branches rooted, were potted, ! 
and plunged in the bark bed in the stove, making a i 
respectable appearance as a plant, or a “ pot of plants ” if 
“Cedo Nulli” likes to call it such. No matter, I saved 
my plant and my credit as well; but the branches were 
not sunk in the pot as “ Cedo Nulli ” asserts them to have 
been. Before the growing season was over the “pot of sunk 
plants ” was repotted with the collars well above the soil, as 
detailed at page 202, and from that day to this I have never 
lost a plant of Hoya bella. 
At the time I potted the “ pot of plants ” I also potted 
a single branch into a small pot for fear of a mishap with 
the larger plant. This plant I growed on as fast as I could, 
in the same way as I did the larger pot, until about 
eighteen months since, when I exchanged it for another 
plant; but it is still in the neighbourhood, and if “ Cedo 
Nulli ” will call on me I will take him to see it, and if he 
can find a better plant, either worked or upon its own root, 
within five miles of Leeds, I will make him a present of the 
best Hoya bella that he can purchase of any nurseryman 
within that same distance. “Cedo Nulli” says my “plant 
looked like Russellia juncea would if tied up to a stick.” Of 
course it was tied up to sticks; hut I think “ Cedo Nulli ” j 
must have made a mistake here, or else he does not know 
the plant RusselUa juncea, for certainly there is a very 
great disparity between H. bella and Russellia, and it is a 
mere matter of taste whether the Hoya is grown as a half 
standard, with one stake for the centre shoot, or whether it 
is grown into a low bush, with sticks to support the longest 
branches. 
“Cedo Nulli” thinks II. imperialis would be the very 
worst of stocks, as “ it would be too strong for the weaker- 
growing II. bella , and would kill the scion.” Perhaps 
it may; but surely if the “ weaker-growing H. bella ” will 
make “such a good plant (when grafted) in eighteen 
months, with six dozen heads of bloom at one time,” there 
is no fear of the imperialis outgrowing the scion. So far 
as my observations extend I think there is a probability of 
the scions outgrowing the stocks now in use; therefore 
my reason for advocating the imperialis as a stock, that is, 
if stocks are required. I, for one, should like to see 
“ Cedo Nulli ” detail his mode of growing II. bella ; but 
let me request of him not to sign a fictitious name if he 
writes again, but to give his proper name and address, so 
that the public may know what amount of credit is due to 
him.— William Dyment, Headingley Leeds. 
[“ Cedo Nulli ” had better accept Mr. Dyment’s invita¬ 
tion. We will not insert anonymous attacks upon that 
gardener, but if “ Cedo Nulli ” has any facts to com¬ 
municate we shall be glad to hear from him.— Ed. C. G.] 
FEEDING IN COMMON HIVES. 
Dlring inclement spring weather many stocks in common 
hives require feeding more abundantly than can be accom¬ 
plished by pipes of elder and other primitive contrivances. 
A good plan to feed stocks in the common bell-shaped hives 
