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CHAPTER XII. 
PASSIFIsORA. 
_— 
We soar to heaven; and to outlive 
Our life’s contracted span, 
Unto the glorious stars we give 
The names of mortal man. 
Then may not one poor fioweret’s bloom 
The holier memory share 
Of Him, who, to avert our doom, 
Vouchsafed our sins to bear ? 
MOST exquisite fiower, that is the 
symbol of faith. The name was ap- 
plied from the resemblance afforded 
by the parts of the plant to the in- 
struments of our Lord’s Passion and 
its attendent circumstances; thus the 
three nails, two for the hands and 
one for the feet, are represented by 
the stigmas; the five anthers indicate 
the five wounds; the rays of glory, or, as some say, the 
crown of thorns, are represented by the rays of the 
‘“‘corona;’’ the ten parts of the perianth represent the 
Apostles, two of them absent, (Peter who denied, and 
Judas, who betrayed our Lord;) and the wicked hands 
of His prosecutors are seen in the digitate leaves of the 
plant, and the scourges in the tendrils. Had this genus 
been named by modern scientists, it is probable their 
