PASSION FLOWERS. 
161 
stigmas are well called club-shaped. The interior of the ovary 
consists of a single cavity, to the sides of which the young seeds 
or ovules are attached in three linear groups. In due course, if 
properly fertilized, the ovary ripens into a berry-like fruit, and 
the ovules become seeds. 
We have been thus minute in describing the general con- 
struction of the flower, because it is impossible to comprehend 
either its true nature or the way in which the flowers become 
fertilized without entering into these matters. The discrimina- 
tion of the very numerous species of the genus depends on 
minor variations in these details; moreover, one object in 
penning these notes is to show how much interest may be 
derived from the investigation of any single flower, if only 
the observer will be content to dip beneath the surface, and not, 
after having filled his eyes with a sense of beauty, rush off 
to fresh fields and pastures new, without even an attempt to 
pick up the jewels of which he sees only those that are perforce 
brought under his very nose. Well ! wherein does the interest 
lie ? some one may enquire who sympathizes with Peter Bell, 
and considers a Passion flower to have been constructed for no 
other end than to adorn its native woods, or to add another charm 
to the conservatory. The interest lies in many directions ; but 
it must be sought for ; it will not come without a little pains- 
taking, but the reward far outweighs the pains required to search. 
The search must be prosecuted in the same way as, but with a 
little more care and judgment than are exercised by a child who 
pulls a toy to pieces to see what it is made of ; with the same 
feelings that induce a mechanist to examine a piece of machi- 
nery, to ascertain its construction, and to see how it works. 
If a little romance, or some historical associations, can be inter- 
woven with the more practical facts, all the better, always 
provided that Minerva and the Muses know their proper places, 
and, while each helps the other, takes care at the same time not 
to get in her sisters’ way. 
The main features in the plan of construction being as above 
described, it is worth while, before seeing what the several 
parts are told off to do and how they do it, to enquire a little 
further as to what they are : what, for instance, is the top-shaped 
or urn-shaped body at the base of the flower, and which, as 
before said, secretes the honey in its interior ? Botanists call 
it the catyx-tube. They say that the calyx is made up of 
five segments, joined into a tube at the base; but is this so? 
We think not, and for these reasons. Everyone knows that 
leaves are produced from branches or from stems as a general 
rule, and that it is a circumstance of the rarest occurrence for a 
leaf to sprout from another leaf. Such a thing does happen in 
Begonias now and then, in cabbages more frequently; but when- 
