PASSIFLO'RA CjERU'LEA. 



COMMON PASSION FLOWER. 

 Class. Order. 



PENTANDRIA.* TRIGYNIA. 



Natural Order. 



PASSIFLOREjE. 



No. 4. 



Passiflora is derived from the Latin patior, to 

 suffer ; and flos, a flower ; from the fancied resem- 

 blance of the different parts of the flower and plant 

 to the instruments of Christ's suffering. The five 

 stamens were compared to his five wounds; the 

 three styles, more aptly, to the nails by which he 

 was fixed to the cross ; the column which elevates 

 the germen, to the cross itself; and the rays of the 

 nectary, to his crown of thorns ; the petals to the 

 ten apostles, Judas and Peter being rejected ; the 

 tendrils to a cord, the leaf to a hand, &c. &c. Cse- 

 rulea, from the Latin, blue. 



Parkinson, in his Paradisus Terrestris, gives what 

 he calls * The lesuite's Figure of the Maracoc,' 

 which is a representation of the flower, composed of 

 the very instruments of torture themselves ; but in 

 noticing these fancies, he is very angry at the su- 

 perstition that suggested them ; observing that it is 

 * All as true as the sea burnes.' 



It may be propagated from seeds, cuttings, or 



* Sir J. E. Smith, in his excellent Introduction to Physio- 

 logical Botany, coincides with Schreber and Thunberg 1 , in 

 placing this genus in the class Pentandria. 



