■268 PLANTS OF NEW ZEALAND 



Passifloraceae. 



The Passion-Flower Family. 



Distribution. — A fairly large family, chiefly natives of the West Indies, and 

 of tropical America. The New Zealand species is endemic. The fruit of some 

 of the species is edible, and contains numerous small seeds enveloped in 

 mucilage. The Passion-flower and the Tacsonia are beautiful and well known 

 garden and greenhouse plants. 



Genus Pamfiora. 



Climbing plants, with slender, elongated tendrils. Calyx-lobes 4-5. Petals 

 4-5, rarely 0; stamens 4-5. Fruit juicy. Seeds black. 1 sp. 



Passiflora tetrandra {Tlic Tetrandrous Passion- floioer) . 



A slender climber, with glossy leaves 1^ in. -4 in. long, and delicate flowers, 

 ^in.-lin. across. Sepals and petals 4. Flowers cymose, green, with beautiful 

 coronas of white or yellow filaments. Fruit very handsome, bright orange, 

 1 in.-lj in. in diameter, many-seeded. In both islands, on the edge of the bush. 

 Banks Peninsula the southern limit of many species. Fl. Nov. -Dec. 



This, our only passion-flower, finds its southernmost habitat 

 on Banks Peninsula. Here, in the warm, sheltered, almost 

 sub-tropical valleys of the various bays, several native plants 

 are found which do not occur further south. Amongst them 

 may be mentioned the titoki, the nikau palm, the karaka, the 

 true pepper {Macropiper) , and the ake-ake {Dodoncea). At 

 one time, a piece of bush ran from the hills across the plains 

 in a north-westerly direction, to beyond Papanui. The only 

 fragment now left of this forest is Deans's Bush, which also 

 contains several of the plants just mentioned. The passion- 

 flower still grows wild there, and in a sheltered gully, known 

 only to a few, near Sumner. In more remote portions of the 

 Peninsula it is not uncommon. There is still a grove of 

 karakas at Long-look-out Point, originally, perhaps, planted 

 \>y the Maoris. Scattered trees are to be found elsewhere in 

 the neighbourhood. The nikau forms a forest in, and gives 

 its name, to a beautiful bay on Akaroa Harbour. The titoki 

 is the chief component of a handsome forest remnant near 



