PASSIFLORA, or PASSION-FLOWER, a genus of the pentandria order, belonging to the gynandria class of plants. There are near 30 different species; all of them natives of warm foreign countries, only one of which is sufficiently hardy to succeed well in the open ground here; all the others requiring the shelter of a green-house or stove, but chiefly the latter. The most remarkable are,
1. The cærulea, or blue-rayed common palmated passion-flower, hath long, slender, shrubby, purplish-green stalks, branchy, and ascending upon support by their clasps thirty or forty feet high; with one large palmated leaf at each joint, and at the axillas large spreading flowers, with whitish-green petals, and a blue radiated nectarium; succeeded by a large, oval, yellowish fruit. It flowers from July until October; the flowers are very large, conspicuous, and their composition is exceedingly curious and beautiful. The general structure of the singular flowers of this plant is, they come out at the axillas on pedunculi about three inches long, which they terminate, each flower having just close under the calix a three-lobed involucrum-like appendage; a five-lobed calix, and a five-petalous corolla, the size, figure, and colour of the calix, &c. the petals arranging alternately with the calicular lobes; the whole, including the involucrum, calix, and corolla, make just 13 lobes and petals, all expanded flat: and within the corolla is the nectarium, composed of a multitude of thread-like fibres, of a blue and purple colour, disposed in circular rays round the column of the fructification; the outer ray is the longest, flat, and spreading on the petals; the inner is short, erect, and narrows towards the centre: in the middle is an erect cylindric club-shaped column, or pillar, crowned with the roundish germen, having at its base five horizontal spreading filaments, crowned with incumbent yellow antheræ, that move about every way; and from the side of the germen arise three slender spreading styles, terminated by headed stigmas: the germen afterwards gradually becomes a large oval fleshy fruit, ripening to a yellowish colour.—These wonderful flowers are only of one day's duration, generally opening about 11 or 12 o'clock, and frequently in hot sunny weather burst open with elasticity, and continue fully expanded all that day; and the next they gradually close, assuming a decayed-like appearance, and never open any more; the evening puts a period to their existence, but they are succeeded by new ones daily on the same plant.—This plant and flowers are held in great veneration in some foreign Catholic countries, where the religious make the leaves, tendrils, and different parts of the flower, to represent the instruments of our blessed Saviour's passion; hence the name passiflora.
2. The incarnata, incarnated, or flesh-coloured Italian passion-flower, hath a strong perennial root; slender, herbaceous stalks, rising upon support four or five feet high; leaves composed of three sawed lobes, each leaf attended by a twining tendril; and at the axillas long slender pedunculi, terminated each by one whitish flower, having a greenish calix, and a reddish or purple radiated nectarium, surrounding the column of the
fructification, which succeed to a large, round, fleshy fruit, ripening to a beautiful orange colour.—The flowers of this species are also very beautiful, though of short duration, opening in the morning, and night puts a period to their beauty; but they are succeeded by a daily supply of new ones.—The fruit of this sort is also very ornamental, as ripening to a fine reddish orange colour; but these rarely attain perfection here, unless the plants are placed in the stove; therefore when there is such accommodation, it highly merits that indulgence, where it will exhibit both flowers and green and ripe fruit, all at the same time, in a beautiful manner.
3. The vespertilio, or bat's-wing passion-flower, hath slender, striated, branchy stalks; large, bilobate, or two-lobed leaves, the base roundish and glandular, the lobes acute, widely divaricated like a bat's wings, and dotted underneath; and axillary flowers, having white petals and rays. The leaves of this species have a singular appearance, the two lobes being expanded six or seven inches wide, resembling the wings of a bat upon flight; hence the name vespertilio.
As all the species are natives of warm climates, in this country they are mostly of a tender quality, except the first sort, which succeeds very well in the full ground, in a warm situation; only their young branches are sometimes killed in very severe winters; but plenty of new ones generally rise again in spring following: the others, denominated stove kinds, must always be retained in that repository.