68 
rently metamorphosed petals. Petals 5, arising from the throat of the calyx, on the out- 
side of the filamentous processes, occasionally wanting, sometimes irregular, imbricated in 
aestivation. Stamens 5, monadelphous, rarely indefinite, surrounding the stalk of the 
ovary ; anthers turned outwards, linear, 2-celled, bursting longitudinally. Orary seated on 
a long stalk, superior, 1 -celled; styles 3, arising from the same point, clavate ; stigmas 
dilated. Fmit surrounded by the calyx, stalked, 1 -celled, with 3 parietal polyspermous 
placentae, sometimes 3-valved. Seeds attached in several rows to the placenta, wfith a 
brittle sculptured testa surrounded by a pulpy aril ; embryo straight, in the midst of fleshy 
thin albumen ; radicle turned towards the hilum ; cotyledons flat, leafy. — Herbaceous plants 
or shrubs, usually climbing, very seldom erect. Leaves alternate, with foliaceous stipules, 
often glandular. Flowers axillary or terminal, often with a 3 -leaved involucre. 
Anomalies. Some apetalous. 
Affinities. The real nature of the floral envelopes of this remarkable 
order is a question upon which botanists entertain different opinions, and their 
ideas of its affinities are consequently at variance. According to Jussieu 
{Diet, des Sciences, 38. 49.), the “parts taken for petals are nothing but in- 
ner dmsions of the calyx, usually in a coloured state, and wanting in several 
species and, therefore, in the judgment of this venerable botanist, the order 
is apetalous. De CandoUe adopts the same view of the nature of the floral 
envelopes as Jussieu ; but he nevertheless considers the order pol^qietalous ; 
a conclusion which I confess myself unable to understand, upon the supposition 
of the inner series of floral envelopes being calyx. Other botanists, and I think 
with justice, consider the outer series of the floral envelopes as the calyx, and the 
inner as the corolla, for two principal reasons. In the first place, they have the or- 
dinary position and appearance of calyx and corolla, the outer being green, and the 
inner coloured ; and, in the second place, there is no essential difference be- 
tween the calyx and coroUa, except the one being the outer, and the other the 
inner of the floral envelopes. And if the real nature of these parts is to be 
determined by analogy, an opinion in which I do not, however, concur, the 
great affinity, as I think, of the order with Violacese would confirm the idea of 
its being polypetalous rather than apetalous. The nature of the filamentous 
appendages, or rays as they are called, which proceed from the orifice of the 
t ibe, and of the membranous or fleshy, entire or lobed, flat or plaited, annu- 
lar processes which lie between the petals and the stamens, is ambiguous. I 
am disposed to refer them to a peculiar form of petals, rather than to the sta- 
mens, for the reasons which I have assigned in the Hort. Trans, vol. 6. p 309, for 
understanding the normal metamorphosis of the parts of fructification to be cen- 
tripetal. There can, at least, be no doubt of their being of an intermediate na- 
ture betw'een petals and stamens. With regard to the affinity of Passiflora- 
cese, Jussieu, swayed by the opinion he entertains of their being apetalous, 
and De Candolle, who partly agrees and partly disagrees with Jussieu in his 
view of their structure, both assign the order a place near Cucurbitaceae, and 
there can be no doubt that Cucurbitaceae are really little more than Passiflora- 
ceae with inferior fruit ; but when we consider the stipitate fruit, occasionally 
valvular, the parietal placentae, thg sometimes irregular flowers, the stipulate 
leaves, and the climbing habit of these plants, it is difficult not to admit their 
affinity with Capparidaceae and Violaceae, the dilated disk of the former 
of which is probably analogous to the innermost of the annular pro- 
cesses of Passiflora. That the fleshy covering of the seeds in this order is a 
real aril, is clear from the seeds of a capsular species nearly related to Pass, 
capsularis, but apparently unpublished, a drawing of which, by Ferdinand 
Bauer, exists in the Library of the Horticultural Society. In this plant the 
apex of the sculptured testa is uncovered by the aril. Smeathmannia forms 
a connecting link between Passifloraceae and Samydaceae. 
Geography. Passionflowers are the pride of South America and the West 
Indies, where the woods are filled wdth their species, which climb about from 
