Cowania
(in honour of James Cowan, a London merchant, who several times visited Mexico and Peru, whence he introduced a great many plants). ORD. Rosaceoe. A genus of very ornamental greenhouse evergreen shrubs, natives of Mexico and the adjacent interior region northward. They are extremely difficult to propagate. Perhaps the only one of the three species yet introduced is C. plicata. It requires a sandy peat and loam soil. C. ericaefolia (Heath-leaved). fl. white, smaller. l. linear, entire. Found only by Parry, on the Rio Grande.
C. mexicana (Mexican).* fl. yellow. l. cuneate-obovate, pinnately three to seven-lobed, dark green above, tomentose beneath. h. 1ft. to 6ft. Mountains of California to Mexico.
C. plicata (plaited).* fl. dark red, terminal, solitary, almost sessile; when protruding from the bud, exactly like those of Rosa. June and July. l. simple, alternate, wedge-shaped, oblong, pinnatifid, plaited. h. 1ft. to 2ft. Mexico, 1835. A rigid, decumbent, much-branched shrub. (S. B. F. G. 400.)