0237 



CUP-AND-SAUCER VINE 



Family: POLEMONIACEAE. 



Reproductive system: PENTANDRY, MONOGYNY. 



The climbing cup-and-saucer vine [Translator's note: also called cathedral bells], 

 Cobcea scandens, Cavan., is a plant remarkable for its energetic growth. It proves to us 

 that plants from the hottest countries can succeed in our climate when knowledgeable 

 growers are in charge of acclimatizing them. After first keeping it in the warmest 

 greenhouses of the King's Garden, M. Thouin planted the seeds, raised the seedlings in a 

 temperate greenhouse, and then transferred them to a conservatory. Today it is grown in 

 open ground, though the stems die at the end of autumn. Yet there is every reason to 

 believe that in the end it will be completely protected from the cold of the Paris climate. 

 It's already been kept successfully in certain sheltered locations, and it's no longer harmed 

 by winter in our southern provinces. 



The stems are woody, sarmentose, smooth and delicate. They reach a length of 

 thirty or forty meters. The leaves, borne on short petioles, are alternate, oval-oblong, 

 smooth, quite entire, and pinnate, consisting of three pairs of leaflets. The petiole 

 terminates in a tendril that branches at the end. The flowers are at first a pale yellow but 

 then become violet, sometimes greenish, especially at the end of autumn. The calyx is a 

 single unit with five divisions and five flattened corners and winged at their bases. The 

 monopetalous, bell-shaped corolla is divided into five parts along its border. There are 

 five stamens. The five filaments, swollen and hairy at the bottom, insert into the base of 

 the corolla and terminate in oblong anthers. The superior ovary is surrounded at its base 

 by a pentagonal glandular structure. The style is longer than the stamens and terminates 

 in three stigmata. The fruit is an acuminate oval capsule with three or five compartments 

 and contains several overlapping seeds. 



FLOWERS: August and September. 



