PASSIFLOUACE^. (I'ASSION-FLOWEU FAMILY.) 185 



1. OPUNTIA, Toiini. ruiCKLY I'lCAR. Indian Fig. 



Sepals and petals not united into a prolonged tube, spreading, regular, the 

 inner roundish. Berry often priekly. Seeds flat and margined. Embryo 

 coiled around albumen: cotyledons large, ibliaceous in germination. — Stem 

 composed of joints, bearing very small awl-shaped and usually deciduous leaves 

 arranged in a s))iral order, with clusters of barbed bristles and often spines also 

 in their axils. Flowers in our species yellow, opening in sunshine for more than 

 one dav. (A name of Theophrastus, originally belonging to some different 

 plant.)" 



1. O. VUlg^l'is, Mill. (Cactus Opuntia, L.) Low, prostrate or spreading, 

 pale, with flat and l)roadly obovute joints; the minute /eaccs oi-ate-suimlnte and 

 oppressed; the axils bristly, rarely with a few small spines; flowers sulphur-yel- 

 low; betTi/ netirlj/ smooth, pulpy, eatable. — Sandy fields and dry rocks, from 

 Nantucket, Mass., southward, usually near the coast. June. 



2. O. Raflnesquii, Engelm. Joints {deep fjreen) and flowers larger than 

 in the i)receding, the latter often with a red centre, and with more numerous 

 (10-12) petals; liarts i^pnadiii;/, longer and narrower (.3"-4"); axils some of 

 them bearing a few small spines and a single strong one (9"- 12" long). — 

 "Wisconsin to Kentucky and westw'ard. June. 



.'5. O. Missouriensis, DC. Prostrate; thy joints broadly obovate and 

 flat (2'--l' long), tuberculate; leaves minute; axils armed with a tuft of straw- 

 colored bristles and 5-10 slender radiating spines (I '-2' long) ; flowers light 

 yellow ; bcrri/ dri/, prickly. — Borders of Wisconsin and westward. May -July. 



OuiMCK 44. PASSIFLORACEiE. (Passiox-Flo\vi;u Family.) 



Herbs or woody plants, climbing bij tendrils, icitk perfect Jlowers, 5 mona- 

 dclphous stamens, and a stalked l-celled ovarii free from the calyx, icilh 3 or 

 4 jiarietal j>lacenl(c, and as many club-shaped styles; — represented by tiie 

 typical genus 



1. PASSIFLORA, L. Passion-Flovver. 



Calyx of 5 sepals united at the base into a short cup, imbricated in the bud, 

 usually colored like the jxjtals, at least within ; the throat crowned with a double 

 or triple fringe. Petals 5, on the throat of the calyx. Stamens 5 : filaments 

 united in a tube which sheathes the long stalk of the ovary, separate above : 

 anthers large, fixed by the middle. Berry (often edible) many-seeded ; the ami- 

 tropous albuminous seeds invested by a pulpy covering. Seed-coat brittle, 

 grooved. — Leaves alternate, generally palmatcly lobed, witli stipules. Pedun- 

 cles axillary, jointed. Ours are perennial herbs. (Name, irom passio, passion, 

 and Jlos, a flower, given by the early missionaries in South America to these 

 blossoms, in which they fancied a n|)re.sentation of the implements of the cru- 

 cifixion.) 



1. P. Itltea, L. Smooth, slender; loires olitusely S-lolxd at the summit, the. 

 IoIhs entire; j)eti«)les glandless; flowers greenish-yellow (I' broad). — Dump 

 thickets, S. I'enn. to III. and suutlnvard. Julv-Sejit. — Fruit J' in diameter. 

 L .^ M—-2A 



