134 
THE LADIES' FLORAL CABINET. 
destroy a plant by using too much of either stimulant, 
or either too frequently, or on a plant that is not grow¬ 
ing rapidly enough to require it. 
The soil should be mellow ioam, sand, and fibry 
woods-earth from old woods, which can often be pur¬ 
chased as peat. Whenever we go out to ride, we take 
along a trowel in the wooden box which serves as a seat 
for the little-sweet-girl, and it comes home a box filled 
with the choicest of woods-earth, for the house, as well 
as ferns or plants for the wild-flower bed in the yard, 
and the search for the richest and best is not the least 
part of the pleasure of the ride. 
The Hoya does not need re-potting often. After it is once 
established in a good-sized pot, let it remain there, with 
merely the occasional top dressing of leaf mold, indefi¬ 
nitely. Our plants, one of them a cutting five years 
ago, and the other eight, or ten, have remained undis¬ 
turbed since their second year’s growth. The pots were 
large for them in that stage of their existence, but I was 
in baste to have them become established in permanent 
quarters. 
The Hoya grows readily from cuttings. Keep wet 
cotton bound aroimd the stem over a cluster of rootlets 
that are scattered along its surface, and, as soon as they 
start,'.cut off the stem and pot it; or, the slip will grow 
readily in wet sand, or in water—a bottle standing or 
hung in the sun-shine ; or it will grow planted directly 
in the soil in which it is to stand the first year. It ought 
to grow stocky the first year, with as many growing 
points as possible. Then the long ends will start out in 
search for strings on which to run, when it may be 
re-potted in a larger pot, and placed where it is to stand, 
and strings furnished it to run on. 
The Hoya flowers are all beautiful. The two we have 
over the ceiling have a prettier leaf than the plain Hoya 
Camosa. It is larger, thinner on the edges, elliptical, 
but more pointed, and its darker glossy green surface is 
slightly blotched with silvery grey, and the veins are 
distinctly delineated. It is a Hoya Camosa, of which 
there are many distinct varieties. If there is an Hoya 
Camosa JIaculata, it is probably that. 
Our Hoya Camosa Variegata has light green leaves 
widely margined with gold, or in the young leaves, a 
bright rose color, while some of the leaves are all yellow, 
and some all red. So far, while it is making good heavy 
growth with several growing ends, it has not started to 
run, although two years old. I like to have it get well 
stocked with leaves, and become bushy, that it may 
have the greater number of arms when it starts. 
The Hoya Paxtonii has a very handsome plain apple- 
green leaf, quite distinct from the others, inclined to be 
obovate in shape, and curled up at the sides, rather than 
thrown back, as is the habit of the Hoyas over our ceil¬ 
ing. It runs readily, and grows rapidly, and has the 
same, lovely clusters of bloom, differing only in their 
greater depth of color. This young Iloya Paxtonii is 
starting to run and must be re-potted to-day, and placed 
permanently with strings to run up on. The longest 
runner has grown a foot since yesterday. 
There are other varieties with still deeper tints, and 
some bordering on brown, but less beautiful than the 
creamy white ones, and only desirable where one likes 
to gather a collection of Hoyas. 
Hoya Bella is a beautiful miniature plant, with leaves 
scarcely an inch in length on the average, but similar in 
habit of growth, ou a small scale. It is a very free 
bloomer. Wc have a small plant of it, possibly two 
feet in height, that has now fifty heads of bloom on it, 
and many more to come. Every end is loaded down 
with its lovely snow white buds, and royally beautiful 
blossoms—suggestive someway of purple and fine linen. 
It is a charming little gem for a hot spot of sun-shine. 
Until a Hoya becomes an old, well-established plant, 
it is wise not to depend upon it for cut flowers. Keep 
it as a decorative plant, as it seems almost a pity to cut 
off the blooming heads while there are yet but few of 
them, as each head goes on blooming anew two or three 
times a year, provided always they have sufficient sun¬ 
shine and heat to do that, year after year, as long as the 
plant lives. When it is older, and the umbels become 
so numerous that each one is not individually con¬ 
sidered an especially beloved friend, then one’s heart 
grows callous toward the multitude of blossoms, and 
does not ache when lopping off a head or two ou special 
occasions. If they are not popular as cut flowers with 
their owners, they make exceedingly handsome screens. 
We have had them growing on brackets above the dado 
at each side of a bay-window, where, guided at first by 
strings, they soon filled the whole space of the arch, 
except room to enter in the center; and with most of the 
leaves and flowers turned towards the windows, the 
space between was as pretty a place to read or write as 
one could wish to have. 
I have seen them, too. growing in a window—the one 
east window perhaps of the room—running hither and 
thither back and forth, the whole a mass of leaves and 
flowers that zigzagged over the ceiling, and walls, and 
floor in the wierdest dance of shadows—off through 
open doors into other rooms—the whole place speaking, 
sparkling, ablaze with the glory of the risen sun. 
The first Hoya I ever saw grew from a large pot on a 
stand back of an old-fashioned wood-consuming register 
stove, and equally near a -window, which it almost hid 
from view. I thought then the Hoya flowers were the 
loveliest things that grow, and I think so still. 
Eva M. Barker. 
NOT LOST. 
Fret not because the promise of the buds 
The fruit doth not fulfill; 
"Was not the hope and fragrance which they brought 
To us a blessing still ? . „ 
Nor count as lost the seeds we sow in faith 
Upon a barren land, 
And reap not. Doth not God the purpose know, 
And bless the sower’s hand? 
Spurn not the vow the eager spirit makes 
That weak flesh cannot keep ; 
The ocean bubbles break, but underneath 
There flows a current deep. 
The buds that blossom not, the withered seed, 
The vows we leave undone, 
Are gems we drop; yet angeis mark their fall; 
And raise them to the crown. 
