■OP ORNAMENTAL ANNUALS. 
185 
Madrid produced plants, which blossomed in that year in the Royal Botanic Garden of Spain. It was first 
described and figured in 1797, by Cavanilles, who called it Cosmos, from the Greek word Kosmos, beautiful ; but 
this name was afterwards altered by Willdenow to Cosmea, as being more consistent with the rules of botanical 
nomenclature. It does not appear to have been introduced into England till 1804 ; and then to have been soon 
lost. This is easily accounted for ; as it is found that if the plants are not brought forward by artificial heat, 
they will not be suflSciently advanced to ripen their seeds before the setting in of the frost. In Madrid, the 
plants did not come into flower till October, and did not ripen their seeds till December. Seeds of this species 
may be procured at Carter's, Holbom ; and they should be sown in January on a slight hotbed, or in a warm 
border, and covered with a hand-glass, being sheltered in frosty weather, and during cold nights with the 
addition of a bast mat. Plants thus treated will grow freely — some in Mr. Henderson's nursery in the Edgeware 
Road being, in the summer of 1838, nearly six feet high ; and they will produce their splendid largo pink flowers 
in September and October. C. diversifolia, another Mexican species, has tuberous roots like those of a dahlia, 
and should be treated in the same manner. 
2.— COSMEA TENUIFOLIA. THE SLENDER-LEAVED COSMEA. 
SywoNYME. — Cosmus tcnuifolius, Lindl. 
Enghavings Bot. Reg. t. 2007 ; and am fig. 1, in Plate 32. 
Specific Character. — The "whole plant very smooth. Leaves 
bipinnate. Lobes linear, remote, acute, entire or divided. Involucrum 
■with ovate, acuminate, exterior scales. Fruit rough, beaked, and 
crowned with from one to three bristles. 
Desckiption, &c. — Closely resembling C. lipinnata, but differing in the leaves being still more finely cut, 
and sometimes again divided at their points ; in the scales of the involucrum being less acuminate ; and in the 
fruit being rough, with a longer beak, and being frequently found with only one bristle. The flowers also are 
more purple or of a reddish lilac than those of C. lipinnata, which are decidedly pink. C. tenuifolia is a native 
of Mexico, and requires the same treatment as the preceding species. It does not however grow so high, and is 
therefore more manageable in a small garden. 
GENUS IX. 
SANVITALTA, Cav. THE SANVITALIA. 
Generic Character. — Flowers of the ray ligulate, female, per- 
sistent ; those of the disk, hermaphrodite, tubular. Involucral scales in 
two or three series. Scales adpressed, somewhat imbricated, the inner 
one» lather longer than the rest. Receptacle conical, furnished with 
Lin. Syst. SYNGENESIA SUPERFLUA. 
half-clasping oblong palesc. Fruit of the ray triquetrouf, smooth, 
crowned by three thick awns ; those of the disk compressed, of two 
forms, the outer ones muricated, the inner ones winged, ciliated, and 
ending in two small awns. 
SANVITALIA PROCUMBENS, Lam. THE TRAILING SANVITALIA. 
Specific Character. — Stem procumbent, or diffuse. Leaves ovate. 
Flowers of the ray exceeding the awns of the fruit. 
SrNONYMES. — S. villosa, Cav. ; Lorentea atropurpurea, Ortega, 
Engravings Bot. Reg. t. 707 ; and onifig. 12, in Plate 31. 
Description, &c. — This very beautiful little plant is a native of Mexico, from which country it was sent to 
Cavanilles, at Madrid, and Lady Bute brought seeds of it from the Botanic Garden in that city to England 
in 1798. Notwithstanding the number of years that it has been in the country, this flower was very little 
known till within the last few years, when it was accidentally brought into notice, and it has since become quite 
common in gardens and nurseries. It is a low, compact-growing plant, presenting a complete mass of flowers, 
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