7C) LETTER V. 



ever, something even here, beyond what you at first 

 perceive. Were you to watch the ovule in its pro- 

 gress to become a seed, you would remark a fleshy 

 sort of jacket, gradually rising from the bottom of the 

 ovule, overspreading its surface day after day, till it 

 had completely enclosed it : and then, on a sudden, 

 becoming soft and pulpy. Such a part as this we 

 Botanists call the arillus ; a part you have often seen 

 in another plant without knowing what it was. The 

 spice called Mace overspreads the Nutmeg, as its 

 jacket does the seed of the Passion-flower, and is the 

 arillus of that aromatic production. 



The seed may be easily deprived of the pulpy 

 arillus, which will strip back (Jig. 6.) ; and then you 

 will discover that the seed itself is a blackish body, 

 with a brittle sculptured shell {Jig. 8.). I shall not 

 trouble you about the contents of the seed, further 

 than to say, that they are sweet like a nut, and as 

 good to eat. 



The only plant belonging to the Passion-flower 

 tribe, which you will find in the gardens, besides 

 Passion-flower herself, is a genus named Tacsonia 

 (see Botanical Register, tab. l.'>36.), w^hich is also 

 found in South America, and is so like a Passion- 

 flower, that you will hardly distinguish it, except by 

 the very long tube of its flower. Its rays are short, 

 so that it has, in some respects, less beauty ; but 

 the richness of its colours, and the large size of all 

 its parts, amply compensate for this defect. 



But, although there is no other genus of the same 

 tribe within your reach, there are several belonging to 



