217 



TASSIFLORACE/E. 



PATELLIDJE. 



213 



PASSIFLORACE^E, Passion-Worts, a natural or.ler of Hypogynous 

 Exogenous Plants. This order is included by Lindley in his alliance 

 Viotal&i. It is characterised by possessing polypetalous or apetalous 

 coronetted flowers ; perigynous imbricated petals ; stamens on the 

 stalk of the ovary; simple terminal styles; arillated seeds; and stipulate 

 leaves. The species are herbaceous plants or shrubs, usually climbing, 

 very seldom erect. 



Considerable difference of opinion exists among botanists as to the 

 real nature of the floral envelopes of this remarkable order. Jussieu 

 and De Candolle, regarding the parts called petals as a second row of 

 sepals, have made the order apetalous ; whilst Lindley and others 

 have regarded the second row of floral envelopes as petals, and made 

 it polypetalous. Lindley makes the affinities of this order with 

 Samydacece, Capparidace<e, Malesherbiacece, and Papayacecc. 



Most of the useful properties of this order are included in the 

 genus Paaijtora. [PASSIFLORA.] Afurucuja ocettata, a West Indian 

 Climber, ia said to be anthelmintic and diaphoretic. Besides the fruit 

 of several species of Passiflora, the fruit of Tacsonia mollissima, 

 T. tripartite, T. tpeciosa, and Paropria eduli* are all of them edible. 

 The species are principally found iu .South America. There are 10 

 genera and about 216 species. 



(Lindley, Vegetable Kinydom.) 



-ION FLOWER. [PASSIFLORA.] 



PASTINA'CA (from Pattinum, the Latin name for a two-pronged 

 fork), a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order Umbdlifera: 

 and the tribe Peucedanece. It has a calyx with 5 very small or nearly 

 obsolete teeth ; round entire petals, involute, with an acute point. 

 The fruit has a d'lated flat margin ; the carpels with slender ridges, 

 3 dorsal equidistant, 2 lateral distant, near the outer edge of the 

 dil.itt d margin ; the interstices with single linear vittae. 



P. tativa, the Parsnip, has an angular furrowed stem ; pinnate 

 leaves, downy beneath : ovate-oblong leaflets, creuate, serrate, often 

 with a lateral lobe at the base. The stem from two to three feet high. 

 The flowers are yellow. The leaves generally shining above, some- 

 times downy beneath. It is a native of Great Britain and of Europe, 

 even to the Caucasus, on hillocks and dry banks, in a chalky soil. 

 The root is spindle-shaped, white, aromatic, mucilaginous, and has a 

 sweet taste. A variety of this species, P. edulit, is the Common 

 Edible Parsnip, and is much cultivated in our gardens. [PARSXIP, 

 in ARTS AND Sc. Div.] Another variety, called P. Coquaine, has roots 

 from 3 to 4 feel long and upwards of 6 inches in circumference. It is 

 extensively cultivated in Guernsey and Jersey as fodder for cattle. In 

 the north of Ireland parsnips are used in the composition of a kind 

 of beer brewed with hops. Wine and ardent spirits are likewise made 

 from the roots. 



/'. X'kakul is another edible species of this genus, and is a native 

 of .Syria and Egypt It has a gray root ; a terete downy branched 

 stem ; pinnate downy leaves ; pinnatifid cut leaflets, blunt and unequally 

 toothed. It is cultivated in the Levant, under the name of Sekakul. 



(Babington, Manual of Britiih Botany; Burnett, Outlines of Botany.) 



I'ASTuii. [STURNID.R] 



I'ASY'THEA (Lamouroux), a group of Sertularidte. 



PATELLID-E, a family of Prosobranchiate Gasteropodous Molltuca. 

 The shell is conical with the apex turned forwards; the muscular 

 impression horse-shoe-shaped, open in front. The genera belonging 

 to this family are Patella, Acmcea, ffadinia, and Sijihonaria. M. De 

 Blaiuville referred these Molluscs to his order Cervicobranchiata, and 

 Cuvier to his order Cyclobranchiata. 



Patella, Limpet, has the body more or less circular, conical above, 

 flat below, and furnished with a large oval or round foot, which is 

 thick and overpassed on tho whole of its circumference by the edges 

 of the mantle, which are more or less fringed. There is a complete 

 series of vertical membranous plaits in the line of junction of the 

 mantle with the foot. 



Shell oval or circular, with an upright summit, or more or less 

 curved forwards. The cavity simple, and more or lens deep : the 

 border entire apd horizontal. Muscular impression narrow, in the 

 form of a horse-shoe, opening forwards. 





Animal of Paltlla. 



Cuvh-r thus describes the genus : " The Patcll'K have the body 



entirely covered by a shell made of one entire piece, shaped like a 



widened cone (en cftue 6vtu6). Under the edges of the mantle is a 



(cordon) of small branchial leaflets (feuillets). The vent and 



Hi- outlet of the generative organs are a little to the right above the 



.hicli is furni.<hed with a large find short proboscis, aud two 



pointed tcutoculn, carrying the eyes at their external bases. The 



mouth is fleshy, aud contains a spiny tongue, which goes backwards, 

 and is folded back deeply in the interior of the body. The stomach 

 is membranous, and the intestine 13 long, delicate, and very much 

 folded. The heart ia forwards, above the neck, a little to the right." 



G. B. Sowerby (' Genera of Recent aud Fossil Shells') says, " there 

 is no canal for the passage of water to the brauchia!, as there is in 

 Emarginula and Siplumaria, for in this genus the branchite are external, 

 surrounding the auimal." 



Rang follows Cuvier, and his description of the animal differs but 

 little from that given above. The thorny tongue he terms not inaptly 

 " un long rubau lingual e'pineux." He thus defines the geuus : 

 " Animal furnished with tentacula and eyes at their external bases ; 

 branchiae formed by a cordon of leaflets ; shell univalve." He after- 

 wards gives a more detailed description of the shell, and makes the 

 following observation : " M. De Blainville believes that he has per- 

 ceived the branchite of the Patellce in a vascular network attached to 

 the plafond of a branchial cavity. Not having been able to distinguish 

 this network, we think with Cuvier that the organ of respiration shows 

 itself in these animals in the circle of leaflets which surrounds the 

 body between the foot and the mantle, as in the Phyllidians. 



" There is a curious genus named Patelloida, by Messrs. Quoy and 

 Gaimard. In these molluscs the shell is absolutely like that of the 

 Patellae, and the animal has not only a cervical sac, but moreover a 

 pectinated brauchia on the right and anterior side of the body ; and, 

 what is remarkable, it is deprived of those vascular leaflets disposed 

 around the foot in the Patellce. The abolition of these leaflets, as soon 

 as a true pectinated brauchia is developed, while the cervical sac under- 

 goes no alteration, aud remains the same in both genera, affords, by 

 a rational induction, the strongest presumption for believing that the 

 leaflets of the Patellce are in fact respiratory organs. These two 

 methods of induction of which we have spoken would of themselves 

 be sufficient to combat victoriously the opinion of M. De Blainville ; 

 but there is a third method still more preferable that which anato- 

 mical investigation furnishes. When by a minute dissection we have 

 traced in the Patella the principal branches of the vessels, we fiud 

 constantly, in tho thickness of the muscles of the lateral parts of tho 

 foot, two large vessels which reach along the whole circumference, and 

 furnish a strong branch to each membranous leaflet. This disposition 

 is like that which is seen in the Chitons. The vessels which iu the 

 Patella are given off to the cervical sac are very small, and not to be 

 compared with the development of those of the Helices, the Limaccs, 

 or even of the Terebratulic and OrbiciUa, whose respiratory organ, 

 though framed for breathing water only, is formed of a vascular net- 

 work on a flattened membrane. In the Patella: the cervical vessels 

 are not more developed than in the other molluscs, which, possessing 

 a pectinated bronchia, have also a cervical sac. It seems to us that 

 we may conclude from the preceding observations that, in the Patella 1 , 

 the cervical sac is not branchial ; and that the brauchiie consist of the 

 floating lamella; between the borders of the foot and of the mantle. 

 By a natural consequence then it becomes necessary to reject tho 

 opinion of M. De Blainville, and to place the Patella: near the Chitons, 

 forming a small family for each of these genera." 



We have only to add that recent observations leave no doubt, if any 

 could have existed after the luminous remarks of Deshayes, that Cuvier 

 and his followers were right, and that M. De Blainville is wrong. The 

 series of simple lamina: attached within the circular border of tne 

 mantle fu!61 the office of branchiae, and to that end are endowed with 

 cilia, which keep up a perpetual current of sea-water over them. This 

 current flows from the outer to the inner edge over the surface of each 

 branchial lamina. 



The following is De Blainville's arrangement of the species : 



a. Species whose summit is obtuse, vertical, very nearly mesial, and 

 which are conical. Ex. P. rulyata. It inhabits the coasts of 

 European seas, and is common in the Channel. Its varieties are 

 almost eudles.0. 



Patella culyata. 



0. Species a little less conical, and whose summit is placed a little 

 anterior to the position of the last, with a slight inclination 

 forwards. Ex. /'. deanrala. It is found in the Straits of 

 Magelhaens, Falkland Isles, &c. 



y. Species which aro oval, elongated, and compressed at the sides. 

 Ex. /'. comprcssa. It inhabits the Indian Seas. Lira. 



8. Species whose summit is sub-anterior and very little developeJ, 

 and which are entirely flat or depressed. Ex. P. scutellaris. 



