332 



PASSIFLORACE^. 



[Hypooynous Exogens. 



Order CXIII. PASSIFLORACEjE.— Passionworts. 



Passifloreae Juss Ann. Mus. 6. 102. (1805); Id. Diet, des Sciences Nat. 38. 48.; DC. Prodr.3. 321; 

 Achille Richard Diet. Class 13. 95. (1828) ; Endl. Gen. cxc\ii. ; Meisner, Gen. j). 124, 



Diagnosis. Violal Exogens, with poly petalous or apetalous cor onetted flowers ^ pengynous 



imhncated petals, stamens on the stalk of the ovary, simple terminal styles, arillated 

 seeds, and stipulate leaves. 

 Herbaceous plants or shrubs, usually climbing, very seldom erect. Leaves alternate, 



with foliaceous stipules, often glandular. Flowers axillary or terminal, often with 



a 3-leaved involucre. Sepals 5, sometimes in'egular, combined m a tube of variable 



length, the sides and 

 thi'oat of which are 

 hned by filamentous 

 or annular processes, 

 apparently metamor- 

 phosed petals. Petals 

 5, arismg from the 

 throat of the calyx, 

 on the outside of the 

 filamentous processes, 

 occasionally wanting, 

 sometimes irregular, 

 imbricated in eesti- 

 vation. Stamens 5, 

 monadelphous, rarely 

 indefinite, surround- 

 ing the stalk of the 



Fig. CCXXVII. 



ovary ; anthers turned outwards, linear, 2-celled, bm'sting longitudinally. Ovary 

 seated on a long stalk, superior, 1 -celled ; styles 3, ai-ising from the same point, 

 clavate ; stigmas dilated ; ovules 00, anatropal, parietal, often inserted on long stalks. 

 Fruit stalked, 1 -celled, with 3 parietal polyspermous placentae, sometimes 3-valved. 

 Seeds attached in several rows to the placentae, with a brittle sculptm'ed testa svirrounded 

 by a pulpy aril ; embryo straight, in the midst of fleshy thin albumen ; radicle tm*ned 

 towards the liilvun ; cotyledons flat, leafy. 



The real natm-e of the floral envelopes of this remarkable Order is a question upon 

 which Botanists entertam different opmions, and then- ideas of its affinities are conse- 

 quently at variance. According to Jussieu (Diet, des Sciences, 38. 49.), the "parts 



Fig. CCXXVII.— Passiflora ; 1. section of a flower : 2. of its ripe fruit. 



