166 BRECK’S NEW BOOK OF FLOWERS. > 
able length on slender filaments, forming beautiful airy 
groups. 
Cleéme grandifléra is one of the most showy of the 
genus. It is easily raised from seed, when planted in the 
open ground, in April or May, and blooms abundantly 
from July to September; grows from three to four feet 
high. Its spikes, continually increasing in length, are al- 
ways surmounted with a crest of beautiful buds and flow- 
ers, which are of a pale pink-purple. It is beautiful in 
the garden, but withers very quickly when cut. 
C. pentaph¥lla.—This is also a handsome annual, of 
the same habit of the last; about two or three feet high ; 
the flowers pure white; the odor of the plant is most of: 
fensive. 
C. spinésa is a spiny plant, which grows about four feet 
high, and bears a spike of beautiful white (sometimes 
pinkish) flowers.. All the species flourish in any common 
garden soil. 
However beautiful and curious these plants may be, and 
desirable for show, they are repulsive to the smell and un- 
pleasant to the touch, and therefore, will not be favorites. 
—+*<+ 
COBAA.—Mexican Cosma. 
(In honor of Bernandez Cobo, a Spanish Jesuit, who wrote upon the subject 
of natural historv in the middle of the 17th century.) 
Cob#a scandens.—This is the most rapid growing green- 
house plant known, having been found to grow two hun- 
dred feet in one summer, in a conservatory. It is a perennial, 
but will not stand the winter, and, unless cultivated in a 
green-house, is classed with tender annuals. It flourishes 
well in the open ground, if it is first started in a hot-bed, 
in pots, and turned out in June. I have found it to con- 
tinue blooming after a number of moderate frosts. The 
