PASSION FLOWER FAMILY. 189 



XLIX. PASSIFLORACEJJ, PASSION FLOWER FAMILY. 



Represented mainly by the Passion flowers described below. 

 In conservatories may be found one or two species of TACSO- 

 NIA, differing from true Passion flowers in having a long tube 

 to the flowers ; also the true Papaw, CARICA PAPAYA. 



1. PASoIFLORA, PASSION FLOWER. (Flower of the Passion; 

 the early Roman Catholic missionaries in South America finding. in 

 them symbols of the crucifixion, the crown of thorns in the fringes of 

 the flower, nails in the styles with their capitate stigmas, hammers to 

 drive them in the stamens, cords in the tendrils.) Herbs or woody 

 plants with alternate leaves and conspicuous stipules, climbing by 

 simple axillary tendrils ; the flowers also axillary, usually with 3 bracts 

 underneath, and a joint in the peduncle ; calyx with a very short tube 

 or cup, and 5 divisions which are colored inside like the petals, and 

 often with a claw-like tip ; petals 5 on the throat of the calyx, or some- 

 times none ; within them the conspicuous crown of numerous filaments 

 or rays, forming a double or more compound fringe ; stamens 5, with 

 narrow-oblong versatile anthers, their filaments united in a tube below, 

 sheathing and adhering more or less to the long stalk which supports 

 the 1-celled ovary ; styles 3 ; stigmas capitate ; fruit berry-like, edible 

 in several species. 



* Herbaceous. 



H- Petals present. 11 



P. Ititea, Linn. Low grounds from S. Penn. to 111. and S. ; slender, 

 low-climbing, with the 3 short and blunt lobes of the leaves entire, and a 

 greenish-yellow flower of no beauty, barely 1 wide. 



P. incarnata, Linn. The fruit, called MAYPOP in S. States, edible, 

 as large as a hen's egg ; trailing or low-climbing, with deeply 3-cleft ser- 

 rate leaves, a pair of glands on the petiole, and one or more on the small 

 bracts, the purple crown of the handsome flower (2 '-3' across) rather 

 longer than the pale petals. Dry ground from Va. and Ky. S. 



H- -t- Petals absent. 



P. gr&cilis, Link. Slender herb, with roundish and slightly 3-lobed, 

 otherwise entire leaves, and whitish merely 5-cleft flower only 1' in diam- 

 eter, destitute of true petals. Remarkable for the quick movement of its 

 tendrils. S. America. 



* * Woody. South American. 

 -t- Leaves palinately lobed j flower widely spreading. 



P. ccerulea, Linn. The COMMON or BLUE PASSION FLOWER. With 

 leaves very deeply cleft or parted into 5 or 7 lance-oblong, entire divisions, 

 pale ; and flower almost white, except the purple center and blue crown 

 banded with whitish in the middle. 



P. edulis, Sims. GRANADILLA. The purplish edible fruit as large as a 

 goose egg ; leaves dark green and glossy, deeply cleft into 3 ovate, pointed 

 lobes beset with callous teeth ; bracts under the flower also toothed ; the 

 crown crisped, 2' across, whitish with a blue or violet base, as long as the 

 white petals. 



