PASSION-FLOWERS 225 
PASSION-FLOWERS 
Natural Order PasstFLOREX. Genus Passiflora 
PAssIFLORA (Latin, passio, passion, and floris, a flower). A large genus 
—one hundred and twenty species—of herbs and shrubs, chiefly climbers, 
with alternate, lobed, or entire leaves, and undivided tendrils. Flowers 
- produced in the axils, solitary or in racemes. The calyx-tube is short 
and urn-shaped with four or five lobes, often coloured on the inner face. 
The petals agree in number with the calyx-lobes, and alternate with 
these in the expanded flower, but are more deeply coloured. Inside these, 
and springing from a ring surrounding the base of the column, is a whorl 
of filaments, forming what is known as the corona. These are quite 
distinct from the stamens, and are really appendages to the petals. There 
are four or five stamens whose anthers are connected with the filaments 
by their middle. The ovary and stamens are supported by a stout 
column termed the gynophore, and from the summit of the ovary three 
styles with dilated stigmas radiate. The genus is chiefly American. 
Passijlora incarnata, the May Apple, from the 
Southern United States, appears to have been the species 
first introduced to English gardens, or more correctly to English green- 
houses, for it is a tender plant. P. lawrifolia, from the West Indies, and 
P. suberosa, var. minima, from Curacoa, followed in 1690. P. cerulea, 
the well-known and fairly hardy species, arrived in 1699 from Brazil. 
From this period new species were frequently being introduced, though 
many of these had no special horticultural interest; but in 1768 
P. quadrangularis, the Granadilla, was brought from Nicaragua; in 
1815 P. racemosa, the parent of several good hybrids, came from Brazil ; 
_and five years later the showy P. coccinea was introduced from the same 
country, whence also came P. alba (1830) and P. raddiana (1831). 
P. amabilis, another red species, from South America, appeared here in 
1848. P. Innesii, a fine hybrid, was produced in 1870 by crossing 
P. alata and P. macrocarpa. Several species produce edible fruit, viz. 
 -P. alata, P. edulis, P. lawrifolia, P. macrocarpa, P. maliformis (Sweet 
Calabash), and P. quadrangularis. These all mature their fruits 
History. 
_ annually in the houses at Kew. We must not close this notice without 
reference to the popular name of these plants, which is reflected in the Latin 
_ name of the genus. The early missionaries to South America saw in the 
various floral organs convenient symbols of the Passion of the Saviour. 
The stigmas were the three nails used in the Crucifixion, the stamens were 
11.— 16 
