146 



mentous processes, occasionally wanting - , sometimes irregular, imbricated in aestivation. Sie- 

 mens 5, monadelphous, rarely indefinite, surrounding the stalk of the ovarium ; anthers turned 

 outwards, linear, 2-celled, bursting longitudinally. Ovarium seated on a long stalk, superior. 

 1-celled; styles 3. arising from the same point, clavate; stigmas dilated. Fruit surrounded 

 by the calyx, stalked, 1-celled, with 3 parietal polyspermous placentae, sometimes 3-valved. 

 Seeds attached in several rows to the placenta, with a brittle sculptured testa surrounded by a 

 pulpy arillus ; embryo straight, in the midst of fleshy thin albumen ; radicle turned towards 

 the hilum ; cotyledons flat, leafy.— Herbaceous plants or shrubs, usually climbing, very seldom 

 arborescent. Leaves alternate, with foliaceous stipulae, often glandular. Mowers axillary or 

 terminal, often with a 3-leaved involucre. 



Affinities. The real nature of the floral envelopes of this remarkable- 

 order is a question upon which botanists entertain very different opinions, and 

 their ideas of its affinities are consequently much at variance. According to 

 Jussieu (Diet, des Sciences, 38. 49.), the " parts taken for petals are nothing 

 but inner divisions of the calyx, usually in a coloured state, and wanting in 

 several species ;" and therefore, in the judgment of this venerable botanist, the 

 order is apetalous, or monochlamydeous. Decandolle adopts the same view of 

 the nature of the floral envelopes as Jussieu ; but he nevertheless considers the 

 order polypetalous ; a conclusion which I confess myself unable to understand, 

 upon the supposition of the inner series of floralenvelopes being calyx. Other bota- 

 nists, and I think with justice, consider the outer series of the floral envelopes as the 

 calyx, and inner as the corolla, for two principal reasons. In the first pl£ce, 

 they have the ordinary position and appearance of calyx and corolla, the outer 

 being green, and the inner coloured : and, in the second place, there is no 

 essential difference between the calyx and corolla, except the one being the 

 outer, and the other the inner of the floral envelopes. And if the real nature 

 of these parts is to be determined by analogy, an opinion in which I do not, 

 however, concur, the great affinity, as I think, of the order with Violaceae would 

 confirm the idea of its being polypetalous rather than apetalous. The nature 

 of the filamentous appendages, or rays as they are called, which proceed from 

 the orifice of the tube, and of the membranous or fleshy, entire or lobed, flat or 

 plaited, annular processes which lie between the petals and the stamens, is am- 

 biguous. I am disposed to refer them to a peculiar form of petals, rather than 

 to the stamens, for the reasons which I have assigned in the Hort. Trans, vol. 

 6. p. 309, for understanding the normal metamorphosis of the parts of fructifi- 

 cation to be centripetal. There can, at least, be no doubt of their being of an 

 intermediate nature between petals and stamens. With regard to the affinity 

 of Passiflorea?, Jussieu, swayed by the opinion he entertains of their being ape- 

 talous, and Decandolle, who partly agrees and partly disagrees with Jussieu in 

 his view of their structure, both assign the order a place near Cucurbitaceae : 

 but when we consider the stipitate fruit, occasionally valvular, the parietal pla- 

 centae, the sometimes irregular flowers, the stipulate leaves, and the climbing 

 habit of these plants, it is difficult not to admit their affinity with Capparideoe 

 and Violacea?, the dilated disk of the former of which is probably analogous to 

 the innermost of the annular processes of Passiflora. That the fleshy covering 

 of the seeds in this order is a real arillus, is clear from the seeds of a capsular 

 species nearly related to Pass, capsularis, but apparently unpublished, a draw- 

 ing of which, by M. Ferdinand Bauer, exists in the Library of the Horticultural 

 Societj-. In this plant the apex of the sculptured testa is uncovered by the 

 arillus. 



Geography. These plants are the pride of South America and the West 

 Indies, where the woods are filled with their species, which climb about from 

 tree to tree, bearing at one time flowers of the most striking beauty, and of so 

 singular an appearance, that the zealous Catholics who discovered them, 

 adapted Christian traditions to those inhabitants of the South American wilder- 

 nesses ; and at other times fruit, tempting to the eye and refreshing to the pa- 

 late. One or two extend northwards into North America. Several are found 



