os 
VIOLALS. 369 
first discovered them, adapted to these inhabitants of the American 
wilderness their own Christian traditions, at other times, fruit, 
tempting to the eye and refreshing to the palate.” 
_ The name is derived from a fancied resemblance to the cross, 
the emblem of our Saviour’s crucifixion. In the five anthers, the 
Spanish monks saw His wounds ; in the triple style the three nails 
by which He was fixed to the cross; and in the column on which 
the ovary is raised, the pillar to which He was bound ; while a num- 
ber of filaments which spread from the cap within the flower were 
finally likened to the crown of thorns. In reality, the flower 
consists of a calyx and corolla, each of five divisions, consolidated 
into a cup, from within the rim of which spreads several rows of 
filamentous processes, regarded by some as barren stamens. From 
the sides of the cup, and within these, there proceeds one or more 
raised rings, notched or undivided, and in various degrees of 
development, and of the same nature as the filamental processes. 
In the centre of the flower stands a column, to the sides of which 
the five stamens are united, but spreading freely beyond its apex, 
and bearing five oblong horizontal anthers. The axis of the 
columns bears the ovary, a one-celled vase, with three parietal poly- 
Spermous placenta, having three club-shaped styles at its vertex. 
The plant produces a gourd-like fruit, containing many seeds, 
each having its own fleshy aril, usually enveloped in a sub-acid 
mucilage, 
The medicinal properties of Passifora are considerable. The 
Soothing influence of P. contrayerva is well known to those having 
the care of children, and almost all the species have properties of 
& useful character. 
The Malesherbiacee are half-hardy herbaceous plants of Chili 
and Peru, of little known interest. 
© Moringacee are a small group of trees of the East Indies 
and Arabia, which De Candolle placed with the Leguminacea, 
“roneously, as Dr, Lindley thinks. 
. The Viotace.x, of which group the Violet (Fig. 389), is a type, 
have irregular flowers, each having two bracts. The calyx has 
five Sepals, each of them having a small open disc at its base, which 
nds beyond the point of its insertion. The corolla is com- 
Posed of five petals, the inferior and largest being hollowed 
BB 
