Joseph Sabine, Esq. 



and Italian authors had before treated of, and on such con- 

 jecture was quoted as a synonym, and authority for the 

 habitat of Linnaeus. Such a reference cannot surely be 

 supported. If Marcgraff's herbarium exists, we might 

 there discover what plant he meant ; or, when the plant lie 

 actually saw, shall be found in the Brazils, it will perhaps so 

 far agree with his description, as to satisfy us of its identity. 

 We have recently become acquainted with two three-lobed 

 leaved Passifloras, (beside the purple-fruited one,) which are 

 natives of the Brazils; but their fruits have not yet been 

 ascertained : one is growing in the collection at Kew, and a 

 specimen of the other is in the Herbarium of my friend 

 Aylmer Bourke Lambert, Esq. ; to one of these it is pos- 

 sible that Marcgraff's plant may be referable ; but neither 

 have any resemblance to the Virginian Passiflora, except that 

 they have three-lobed leaves. 



I have been induced to enter thus into a detail of this 

 matter, not only as the question is in itself one of some curio- 

 sity, but because I conceive, that the attempt to settle such a 

 doubtful point must be matter of extraordinary interest to 

 every gardener. I scarcely know a plant, to which so much 

 peculiarity attaches, as the original Flos Passionis, whether 

 we consider the singular properties attributed to it by the 

 Jesuits, or that it was the first, and, for more than a cen- 

 tury, the only species cultivated, of perhaps the most beauti- 

 ful genus of plants existing ; or that, though so much prized, 

 two hundred years ago, in the gardens of Europe, all know- 

 ledge of, and certainty respecting it, should since have been 

 lost, though I hope the present enquiry will lead to its dis- 

 covery. 



VOL. III. Q 



