Flora Medica

PASSIFLORACE^E.Nat. syst. ed. 2. p. 67.PASSIFLORA.Flowers hermaphrodite. Calyx-tube very short. Coronacomposed of numerous filaments in several rows. Anthersreflexed. Berry stalked, usually pulpy, rarely somewhat membranaceous.W. and A.218. P. quadrangularis Linn. sp. pi. 1356. Jacq. pi. amer.143. Bot. reg. t. 14. West Indies and tropical parts oft.America. (Granadilla.)Leaves smooth, cordate ovate, acuminate. Petioles with 4-6glands. Stipules ovate. Bracts 3 under each flower, entire. Flowerslarge fleshy; crown erect, cylindrical, with numerous stout, lilac andwhite, variegated rays. Fruit very large, oblong, fleshy. Root emetic.Martins. Powerfully narcotic, on which account it is said by Mr.Burnett, on the authority of a French writer, to be cultivated in severalFrench settlements for the sake of its root. It is said to owe itsactivity to a peculiar principle called Passiflorine. The fruit, calledGranadilla, is a common article in a Brazilian dessert.219. P. Contrajerva Smith in JRees No. 23. (Hernand.p. 301. fig. inf. Mexico.Leaves smooth, deeply 2-lobed ; lobes oblong, obtuse, scarcely diverging.Flowers multifid. Said to be alexipharmic and carminative.220. P. fetida Linn. sp. pi. 1359. Cav. diss. x. t. 289. Bot.iii. 331 Common in the WestReg. iv. t. 321. DC. prodr.Indies.From 4 to 7 feet high, herbaceous, densely furred with upright hair.Leaves distant, soft, yellowish green, 3-lobed, cordately hastate, about3 inches long, repandly subdentate, the teeth headed by a small bristleor point, 5-nerved, shining ^through the pubescence at the under side;lobes acuminate ; petioles glandless, thickish, roundish, nerved, nearlytwice shorter than the blade ; stipules broadly semisagittate, herbaceous,short, ciliately multifid. Flowers axillary, solitary, very tender,very fugacious, about 2 inches over ; peduncles glandless, filiform, stiff,3 times slenderer, but longer than the petioles, shorter than the leaf,spreading. Involucre herbaceous, larger than the flower, of 3 leaflets,yellowish green, very close to the calyx. Calyx rather tender, dintedat the base, very shallowly urceolate, greenish on the outside, white onthe inside; segments oblong, obtuse, 3-nerved underneath, with themiddle nerve carinately prominent, hairy, and terminating in a hornshapedpoint. Petals very tender, all white, placed at the mouth ofthe tube of the calyx, equal to and of the same shape as the segmentsof that. Crown radiantly outspread, variegated with white and violet :105