ITO 



NAT. ORDER. PASSIFLOREJE. 



passed by nature itself. Professor Lindlej^, who has given a more 

 particular description of this species of plant tJian any of our other 

 botanists, describes it as having five sepals, sometimes irregular, com- 

 bined in a tube of variable length, the sides and throat of which are 

 lined by filamentous or annular processes, apparently metamorphosed 

 petals. Five j)ctals, arising from the throat to the calyx, on the out- 

 side of the filamentous processes, occasionally wanting, sometimes ir- 

 regular, imbricated in aestivation ; s^rtmc7is five, monadelphous, rarely 

 indefinite, surrounding the stalk of the ovarium ; anthers turned out- 

 wards, linear, two-celled, bursting longitudinally ; ovarium seated on a 

 long stalk, superior, one-celled ; styles three, arising from the same 

 point, clavate ; stigmas dilated ; fruit surrounded by the calyx, 

 stalked, one-celled, with three parietal polyspermous placentae, some- 

 times three-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 foliareous 

 stipulfn, often glandular ; floiocrs axillary or terminal, often with three- 

 leaved involucre. 



Notwithstanding a tropical climate appears to be the natural 

 home of the Passion Flower, one or two of its species have attached 

 themselves to our own country, as well as some of the southern parts 

 of Europe ; several appear to be indigenous to Africa and its neigh- 

 boring islands, and a few in the East Indies, but the greater part of 

 these belong to the genus Modccia, and the flowers, although they 

 rank among the most beautiful of any country where they are found, 

 are far inferior, both in size and brilliancy of color, to the South 

 American plant we have been describing. 



Its medical properties and uses are comparatively unknown, at 

 least it has never been introduced into either American or European 

 practice, perhaps on account of its rarity ; consequently this part of 

 its history yet remains for the discovery of science. 



