IGO 
poetic illustration. The rich crimson one is named Buona- 
partia, the two others, purple and white, are the Raceniosa 
Cwrulea, and Colvillii. The lines accompanying this gi’oup 
might, perhaps, mduce some of my readers to regi-et my 
seeming ignorance of the whimsical but much-patronized 
fancy, that the Passion-flower is a natural tablet,—a medal 
struck by nature in memory of the Crucifixion. This idea 
I have often seen, both in prose and poetry; and it is not 
from ignorance of it, but doubt of its propriety, that my 
illustration has other allusions. I shall, perhaps, be told, that 
it is hut a fable, and should have been allowed a jdace at 
least in a work where so many fables and fanciful legends 
are assembled; but the subject is too serious to rank with 
the mere fanciful creations of our classic mythologists and' 
quaint poets. For myself, I consider the fancy the most 
<n-oundless that has vet been linked with the fair tribes of 
Flora. Even had the Passion-flowers been natives of 
Palestine, the notion would have more apparent reason, 
but they are denizens of the wild forests of a world undis¬ 
covered till centuries after the event they are said to com¬ 
memorate. There are many flowers, too, with cruciform 
parts, quite as aptly emblematical as this splendid tribe, 
which bears no analogy to the subject but in its triple¬ 
headed stigma. The petals are ten in number, the anthers 
five, and the long jiencilled threads of the star-like nectary 
ai'e various in number, and almost countless in many varie¬ 
ties. I shall therefore leave the emblem study of the beautiful 
Passiflora to minds more superstitiously imaginative than my 
