Volume 4 — PLATE CCXVII. PASSIFLORA MALIFORMIS. Apple-fruited Passion-Flower.

CLASS XX. ORDER IV.

GYNANDRIA PENTANDRIA. Chives on the Pointal. Five Chives.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

Calyx. Perianthium quinquepartitum, planum, coloratum, petalis conforme.

Corolla. Petala quinque, semi-lanceolata, plana, obtusa, magnitudine et figura calycis.

Nectarium corona triplex; exterior longior, intra petala stylum cingens, superne magis coarctata.

Stamina. Filamenta quinque, subulata, ad basin germinis columnæ annexa, patentia. Antheræ incumbentes, oblongæ, obtusæ.

Pistillum. Germen subrotundum, apici columnæ cylindraceæ, rectæ insidens. Styli tres, superne crassiores, patuli. Stigmata capitata.

Pericarpium. Bacca carnosa, subovata, unilocularis, pedicellata.

Semina plurima, ovata, arillata.

Receptaculum feminum triplex, cortici pericarpii longitudinaliter adnatum.

Empalement. Cup five-parted, flat, coloured, like the petals.

Blossom. Petals five, half lance-shaped, flat, blunt, of the size and shape of the cup.

Honey-cup, a triple crown; the outer longer, encircling the shaft within the petals, more contracted above.

Chives. Five threads, awl-shaped, fixed to the base of the column of the seed-bud, spreading. Tips fixed by their backs, oblong, obtuse.

Pointal. Seed-bud roundish, falling into the end of a cylindrical, upright column. Three shafts, thicker above, spreading. Summits headed.

Seed-vessel. A fleshy berry, nearly egg-shaped, one-celled, pedicelled.

Seeds many, egg-shaped, covered by a seed-coat.

Receptacle of the seeds triple, fixed longitudinally to the rind of the berry.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Passiflora foliis indivisis, cordato-oblongis, integerrimis; petiolis biglandulosis; involucro triphyllo, flore majore; fructu maliformi.

Passion-Flower with undivided leaves, heart-shape-oblong, quite entire; foot-stalks with two glands, fence three-leaved, larger than the flower; fruit like an apple.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

1. A ripe fruit.

2. A Flower cut perpendicularly through the middle, to shew its interior structure, with the parts of fructification complete.

This species of Passion-Flower is said to be a sojourner with us since the year 1731, and to have been then cultivated by Miller. It is likewise said to be a native of Dominica, but it is found in all the West India islands. It rarely flowers in this climate; and we should not now have been able to gratify our friends with this figure, but for the particular ingenuity, in the treatment of hot house plants, by Mr. Anderson, superintendant of the rich collection of plants in the gardens of J. Vere, Esq. Kensington Gore, who by a long experience in cultivation, added to a particular love for the profession, has placed his knowledge in the treatment of exotics, in particular, much beyond most cultivators of the present day. Our figure was taken from a plant which continued in flower from July till November; it was planted in a border of rich earth, close to the tan-pit, and trailed along the front rafter of the house; the only method, we presume, by which it can be induced to flower, as we have never seen it elsewhere. It is propagated with ease by cuttings.

Much contention has arisen among Botanists, since the days of Linnæus, where to place this tribe of plants. Swartz placed it to Monadelphia, who is lately followed by Willdenow. Schreber, Thunberg, &c. have thrown it to Pentandria. But our antiquated notions of the capability of that great man, in classifying to his own system, those plants which came under his actual review, has occasioned our retaining it, under its old class, just as he left it.