THE F ASSIGN FLOWER 
113 
We walked for some hours under the shade of these 
arcades^ that scarcely admit a glimpse of the sky, which 
appeared to me of an indigo blue, so much the deeper, 
as the green of the equinoctial plants is generally of a 
stronger hue, with somewhat of a brownish tint.” 
A considerable degree of moisture in the atmosphere, 
joined to a high temperature, seemed the necessary con- 
ditions of the excessive growth of vegetation exhibited 
by these forests, and especially for the height of their 
tiees. It is very seldom that our tallest tree — the patri- 
arch of an English woodland — attains a greater height 
than a hundred and twenty feet, while in the American 
forests many of the trees are a hundred and fifty feet 
high. 
Upwards of forty species of passion-flower (Passiflora) 
have been brought into this country. Some of them 
will produce their fruits in the conservatory, others will 
only blossom there, but several species will thrive out of 
doors, and ornament our verandas with their flowers, or 
even deck the fronts of houses in the squares of Lon- 
don. They are all climbing plants, hanging by their 
tendrils or their twisted leaf-stalks. They are very 
abundant in South America and the West Indies; one 
or two species grow wild in North America, a few are 
found in Eastern India, and many gladden various parts 
of Africa and the. islands near it. 
These flowers are of a very ephemeral character; they 
bloom one day only, opening at about eleven or twelve 
o’clock, and closing in the evening. On the next day 
they may be seen hanging, brown and withered, upon 
the stem which bore them. Some of them burst into ex- 
pansion with great elasticity. 
Several species of passion-flower are powerfully odori- 
ferous, and most of them emit a faint and delicate per- 
fume. The berries which they produce are, in some in- 
stances, so large, and contain so great a quantity of 
pulpy acidulated substance, as to form a fruit for the 
dessert, which is in great request for its delicious flavour, 
and the refreshment it affords in the warm climates in 
which it is indigenous. 
The sweet calabash of the West Indies is the fruit of 
a passion-flower (Passiflora maliformis). The fruit has a 
