104 Account of the Purple-fruited Passion Flower. 



and are fragrant ; the fringe is very conspicuous, consisting 

 of filaments, or rays, which extend over the external parts of 

 the flower ; it is white, tinged with purple or violet, the dark 

 colour predominating nearest the centre. 



The fruit, when unripe, is green ; but as it ripens, the co- 

 lour changes to a dark, livid purple, and then very much 

 resembles the fruit of the purple egg-plant. The general 

 shape is elliptic, measuring about an inch and an half in dia- 

 meter, and two inches from the stalk to the top ; but is, in 

 some cases, more globular. It is smooth, and very faintly 

 marked with three longitudinal sutures, as if it were divisible 

 into three parts ; the outer coat is hard and tough, measuring 

 nearly a quarter of an inch in thickness, the external half of 

 which substance, when cut through, is purple, (green before 

 it is ripe,) the other part being white, and this latter portion, 

 which is like white leather, lines the whole interior of the 

 coat. In the centre of the inside of each of the subdivisions 

 of the coat, is a broad row of small processes, arising from the 

 lining, and extending from top to bottom ; to each process is 

 suspended a small cyst, containing a bright yellow, or orange- 

 coloured pulp, in which a single seed is imbedded. The 

 seeds, in each fruit, are very numerous : they are flat, ovate, 

 somewhat larger than common apple pips ; when first exclu- 

 ded, they are smooth, but they soon become minutely speck- 

 led with dots, after exposure to the air. When the fruit is 

 cut through horizontally, the contents seem to fill the whole 

 space, and to be confusedly mixed together ; but, by carefully 

 making an incision down the line of the apparent sutures, and 

 then separating the divisions of the coat, the internal arrange- 

 ment becomes perceptible. 



