PASSIFLORACE^E. 



Nat. syst. ed. 2. p. 67. 



PASSIFLORA. 



Flowers hermaphrodite. Calyx-tube very short. Corona 

 composed of numerous filaments in several rows. Anthers 

 reflexed. Berry stalked, usually pulpy, rarely somewhat mem- 

 branaceous. W. and A. 



218. P. quadrangularis Linn. sp. pi. 1356. Jacq. pi. amer. 

 t. 143. Bot. reg. t. 14. West Indies and tropical parts of 

 America. (Granadilla.) 



Leaves smooth, cordate ovate, acuminate. Petioles with 4-6 

 glands. Stipules ovate. Bracts 3 under each flower, entire. Flowers 

 large fleshy; crown erect, cylindrical, with numerous stout, lilac and 

 white, variegated rays. Fruit very large, oblong, fleshy. Root emetic. 

 Martins. Powerfully narcotic, on which account it is said by Mr. 

 Burnett, on the authority of a French writer, to be cultivated in several 

 French settlements for the sake of its root. It is said to owe its 

 activity to a peculiar principle called Passiflorine. The fruit, called 

 Granadilla, is a common article in a Brazilian dessert. 



219. P. Contrajerva Smith in JRees No. 23. (Hernand. 

 p. 301. fig. inf. Mexico. 



Leaves smooth, deeply 2-lobed ; lobes oblong, obtuse, scarcely diverg- 

 ing. Flowers multifid. Said to be alexipharmic and carminative. 



220. P. fetida Linn. sp. pi. 1359. Cav. diss. x. t. 289. Bot. 



Reg. iv. t. 321. DC. prodr. iii. 331 Common in the West 



Indies. 



From 4 to 7 feet high, herbaceous, densely furred with upright hair. 

 Leaves distant, soft, yellowish green, 3-lobed, cordately hastate, about 

 3 inches long, repandly subdentate, the teeth headed by a small bristle 

 or point, 5-nerved, shining ^through the pubescence at the under side; 

 lobes acuminate ; petioles glandless, thickish, roundish, nerved, nearly 

 twice shorter than the blade ; stipules broadly semisagittate, herba- 

 ceous, short, ciliately multifid. Flowers axillary, solitary, very tender, 

 very fugacious, about 2 inches over ; peduncles glandless, filiform, stiff, 

 3 times slenderer, but longer than the petioles, shorter than the leaf, 

 spreading. Involucre herbaceous, larger than the flower, of 3 leaflets, 

 yellowish green, very close to the calyx. Calyx rather tender, dinted 

 at the base, very shallowly urceolate, greenish on the outside, white on 

 the inside; segments oblong, obtuse, 3-nerved underneath, with the 

 middle nerve carinately prominent, hairy, and terminating in a horn- 

 shaped point. Petals very tender, all white, placed at the mouth of 

 the tube of the calyx, equal to and of the same shape as the segments 

 of that. Crown radiantly outspread, variegated with white and violet : 

 105 



