LETTER V. 



THE PASSION-FLOWER TRIBE — AFFINITY THE 



GOURD TRIBE — THE TUTSAN TRIBE. 



(Plate V.) 



When the Spaniards discovered America they 

 found among other curious things, a flower, which 

 they thought was an allegorical representation of the 

 crucifixion and sufferings of our Saviour. In its 

 anthers they saw his five wounds, in the three styles 

 the nails by which he was fixed to the cross, and in 

 a column which rises from the bottom of the flower 

 the pillar to which he was bound ; a number of little 

 fleshy threads which spread from its cup, they com- 

 pared to the crown of thorns. There are cuts, says 

 Sir James Smith, to be found in some old books, 

 apparently drawn from description, like the hog in 

 armour upon our signs to represent the rhinoceros, 

 in which the flower is made up of the very things 

 themselves (Rees's Ci/clopcBclla). 



Such travellers' stories as this, would now find few 

 persons credulous enough to believe them ; the tale 

 is, however, not wholly fabulous. Like many others 

 of the same sort it is composed of truth mingled either 

 with falsehood or excessive exaggeration. There is 

 such a flower, and a highly curious one it is ; and so 



