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396 FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY BOTANY, VOL. XIX
bracts, several species and varieties have been described. Masters
reduced all to four varieties but admitted that they freely intergraded.
Among the specimens cited above two well marked forms may be
observed: in one the filaments of the two outer ranks of the corona
are nearly as long as the sepals, the succeeding filaments being
dentiform in two distinct rows, and the corona entire; in the other
the outer two rows of filaments are less than half as long as the sepals,
the succeeding filaments linear-falcate in three closely approximate
series, the operculum fimbrillate at the margin. The first form is
well represented by Lindman 825, the second by Chase 8250.
Differences
in vegetative characters, however, do not appear to be correlated
with these differences in coronal structure, either in P. edulis
or in P. caerulea, another commonly cultivated species exhibiting
the same differences in the length of the two outer ranks of the corona.
As many of the herbarium specimens doubtless represent cultivated
plants or escapes, it is possible that one of the forms has resulted
from the introduction of a strain of some other species. For the
present I prefer not to assign formal names to these variants.
Passiflora verrucifera was described as having glands on the sepals
near the margin. Otherwise it appears to differ little from the form of
P. edulis with proportionately longer corona filaments. No specimens
that I have examined have these glands, and it is possible that the
type of P. verrucifera was a hybrid between P. edulis and P. setacea.
Two species described by Barbosa Rodriguez, P. picroderma and
P. iodocarpa, closely resemble P. edulis in vegetative characters.
The coronal structure of neither corresponds exactly to that of the
two forms mentioned above. Possibly the coronal structure of this
species is even more variable than here noted, or perhaps Barbosa's
plants are actually distinct species. The types of these apparently
are not in existence. Passiflora vernicosa Barb. Rodr. is the form
of P. edulis with proportionately long outer corona filaments.
Passiflora edulis is cultivated in Florida and the West Indies and
in South America from Venezuela to Brazil. In many places it has
escaped and become well established. In Australia it is the most
commonly cultivated species of Passiflora, and its fruit is highly
esteemed.
It is interesting to note that the late Dr. H. K. W. Kumm, who
was engaged in the cultivation of passion-fruit in southern California,
developed a fourth generation plant of P. edulis with four placentae.
LOCAL NAMES: "Parche" (Venezuela); "maracuja," "maracujamirim,"
"maracuja dedoce," "maracuja peroba" (Brazil).