ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOrANY. 37 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE 107. 



1. A panicle of flowers of Carlca Papaya taken from 4. The same, cut onon. 



a jnale tree, but ill this instance having female flowers 5. A Pupaw taken from the same tree smaller than 



^^^^^'^\ , „ ,. , . . ^'^"^^ produced on the leinale tree, but otherwise perfect. 



■J. A male flower split open, showing the 2 rows of 6. The same cut verti.allv showing; ihe sml jwv/f/f 



stamens and abortive ovary in the bottom of the tube. 7. Portion of a panicle of male flowers the usual form 



3. One of the female flowers detached and the petals 8, Male flowers split open, 



forced open to show the ovary. y & iq. Back and trout views of the slamens. 



i^ 



LXX.— PASSIFLORE/E. 



This like the last can scarcely be viewed as an Indian order, a very few specie.s only, out of 

 nearly 200 described in Botanical works, having yet been met with in Asia. America, especially 



the warmer provinces is the grand storehouse of these elegant and deservedly much admired 

 flowers. 



_ 'I his family approaches Cucurbit aceae in its tendril bearing stems and diffuse climbing habit, 

 but in scarcely any other well marked particular. Its flowers are very different, its fruit are supe* 

 rioranddistinctlyparietose, and its seed are albumenous. Notwithstanding these important, 

 diffei-pnces nearly all Botanists agree in placing these orders next each other, and Jussieu even 

 united them, not however without remarking on the very different position of the ovary in the two 

 tribes. In habit their agreement is so strong that without examination of the flowers or fruit our 

 species oi Modecca might readily be referred to Cucurlitaceae, but the slightest examination of 

 either flower or fruit at once shows a wide difference. Lindley however remarks " there can be 

 no doubt that C?^c^^;•A^7acefle are really little more than Passifloreae with inferior fruit" an 

 opinion we shall consider more at large when we come to consider their affinities. The order is 

 thus characterized. 



" Sepals 5 (rarely 4), foliaceous, united below into a short or elongated tube, the sides and 

 throat of which are lined with a eo?o/?a composed of filamentous or annular processes. Petals 

 perigynous, inserted between the corona and the calyx-segments, with which last they are dA 

 numerous, and alternate, usually almost homogeneous with and shorter than them, very rarely 

 larger than them and with the usual appearance of petals, sometimes wanting. Stamens ,5 (very 

 rarely indefinite), monadelphous, usually with processes from the torus betw'een them and the 

 petals: anthers inserted by their base, 2-celled, bursting longitudinally on the inner side (but, 

 from their being often reflexed, apparently opening outwardly.) Ovarium free, 1 -celled : ovules 

 indefinite, attached to 3 (or very rarely 4), pHrietal placenfee : styles 3 (or verv rarely 4), or none. 

 Fruit naked or surrounded by the calyx, l-celled, usually 3-valved,sometimes'dehiscent andlocu- 

 licide, sometimes fleshy and indehiscent. Seeds indefinite, compressed, with an arillus or stro- 

 phida; testa brittle .sculptured. Embryo straight, in the centre of a thin fleshy albumen : radicle 

 pointing to the hilum." 



Affinities. It is an axiom in Botany, in the determination of natural aflSnities of plants 

 that the nature of every part of the plant must be understood and explained, to enable us to 

 compare one organ with another in different families, and in that way ascertain in what points 

 they associate and in what they differ. This is not always an easy task, and in the present 

 instance, the elucidation of the parts of the flower has given rise to much difference of opinion 

 among the leaders of the science. 



Jussieu first described the parts called petals in the above character as an inner division of 

 sepals, and viewed the order as apetalous. DeCandolle so far agrees in this view, as to call the 

 inner row sepals, i)ut nevertheless considers the order polypetalous which, Lindley well remarks, 

 " he is unable to understand on the supposition of the inner series of floral envelopes being 

 calyx," and therefore, with other Botanists considers the outer series as the calyx and the inner 

 as petals, first, because they have the ordinary position and appearance of calyx and corolla, the 

 outer beiiit; green the inner coloured, and secondly, because there is no essential difference be- 

 tween (he calyx and corolla except the one being the outer and the other the inner of the floral 

 envelopes. Neither Endlicber nor Meisner, both of whom quote his work, seem to coincide in 

 the correctnes.s of this view, since they both describe its floral envelopes as a perigonium corolla 



like 8.10 



orders 



** 



