72 LETTER V. 



far from rare, that you are probably already well 

 acquainted with it, for it is now frequently to be seen 

 trained even to cottage walls. 



You are surprised at this, and I dare say wonder 

 what this strange flow er can be that you have so often 

 seen w ithout discovering in it any of the marvels of 

 the good Spaniards. They called it, in allusion to 

 its mystical attributes, Flos Passionis^ a Latin name 

 signifying — Passion-flower, which the moderns have 

 retained. 



Many species with this remarkable character are 

 known in gardens ; they are all Passion-flowers, and 

 are the representatives of the Passion-flower tribe. 

 In other countries, other singular plants are also 

 found, not exactly Passion-flowers, but belonging to 

 the same tribe ; as you are never likely to meet with 

 them, I need not trouble you about the manner in 

 which they are distinguished. We will satisfy our- 

 selves with a botanical view of that to which so 

 strange a story is attached. 



The Passion-flower is a twining plant which helps 

 itself to rise upon others by tendrils like those of 

 the Pea, with which it often scrambles to the tops of 

 high trees, or, if it misses its hold in the ascent, or 

 is by any accident separated from the prop it has 

 selected, hangs down among the branches in elegant 

 festoons. Its leaves are veined in the netted manner ; 

 and are often divided into deep lobes, but not always ; 

 their stalks bear here and there upon their upper 

 edge little hard dark-green shining warts, called 

 glands ; and they have a pair of stipules at their base. 



