rASSIFLORE^. 
147 
ORDER LXXXI. PASSIFLOREJE.— THE 
PASSION FLO WERS. 
Sepals 5, sometimes irregular, combined below 
into a more or less elongated tube. Petals 5, 
pcrigynous, arising from the throat of the calyx, 
often with filamentous or annular processes on 
their inside, sometimes irregular or awanting, 
imbricated in mstivation. Stamens 5, monadel- 
phous, surrounding the stalk of the ovary : an- 
thers versatile : pollenary grains bursting by oper- 
cula. Ovary seated on a long stalk, superior, l- 
celled : styles 3: stigmata dilated. Fruit stalked, 
1-celled, with 3 parietal polyspermous placentae, 
sometimes 3-valved : seeds in several rows, with 
a brittle sculptured testa: embryo straight: radi- 
cle turned towards the hilum : cotyledons flat, 
leafy. 
Herbaceous plants or shrubs, usually climbing. Leaves 
alternate, with foliaccous stipules, often glandulose. 
Flowers axillary or terminal, often with a three-leaved 
involucre. — Natives of warm climates. 
1. Passiflora. 
Calycine tube very short; throat furnished 
with a compound filamentose crown. Berry ge- 
nerally pulpy, rarely submembranaceous. — DC. 
Named from the arrangement of the different parts of 
the flower being supposed to represent the passion of (he 
Saviour. This fanciful repmsentation was eagerly laid 
hold of by tne Priests, on the lirst introduction of plants 
belonging to this genus into Italy. It was pointed out to 
the superstitious that the leaf represented the spear that 
pierced his side ; the threads of the nectary were the 
lashes of the scourge, tipt with blood : the five encircling 
