NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 63
203, defines his "Alliance Passionales," "Flowers with a ring or coronet of sterile stamens," a view which my present examination does not enable me to adopt.*
This discussion is introduced to show how gradual the transition of parts sometimes is, and that in such cases much discrimination is required to enable the investigator of natural objects, to call parts by their right names.
Regarding the properties of the family almost nothing seems to be known. The fruit of some is edible and is said to be "fragrant, juicy, cooling and pleasant."
PASSIFLORA PASSION FLOWER.
Flowers bisexaul. Calyx-tube very short. Corona composed of numerous filaments in several rows. Anthers reflexed. Berry stalked, usually pulpy, rarely somewhat membranaceous.-W. and A. Prod. p. 352.
This genus as already remarked, is one of great extent, though so sparingly found in India. The species are either herbaceous annuals or climbing shrubs, admirably adapted for arbours, as well on account of their rapidity of growth, as on account of the profusion and splendor of their flowers, whence it is with great jus- tice said, "Passion flowers are the pride of South America and the West Indies, where the woods are filled with their species, which climb about from tree to tree, bearing at one time flowers of the most striking beauty, and of so singular an appearance, that the zealous Catholics who discovered them, adapted Christian traditions to those inhabitants of the South American Wilderness and at other times fruit, tempting to the eye and re- freshing to the palate."-Lindley. The Indian plant cannot compete in richness of colouring, with those forest jems of the Western World, but still it does not merit the total neglect with which it is treated by the European sojourners on these Hills. I therefore hope this notice, by directing attention to the fact of our having a native Passion flower among us, will also have the effect of bringing it into vogue.
PASSIFLORA LESCHENAULTII (DC. :) climbing: leaves half-orbicular, rounded at the base, somewhat truncated and 3-cuspidate at the apex, pubescent on the under side, but particularly so on the nerves, with- out glands: petioles with two glands about their mid- dle: tendrils simple: peduncles in pairs from the same axils as the tendrils, simple, 1-flowered: calyx without an involucre; petals 5.-DC. Prod. 3. p. 326; Wall.! L. n. 1231; Wight! cat. n. 1154.-Neil- gherries.-W. and A. Prod. p. 352.
A rather common extensively climbing shrub, growing in woods about Ootacamund, but more abun- dantly and in greater perfection at the lower levels of Kotagherry, Coonoor, the Avalanche, &c. The flow- ers are small compared to some of the finer species, but larger than several I have seen in cultivation, and much thought of too; the colours though not bright are yet so vivid as to bear close inspection though little conspicuous at a distance, a kind of modesty which I apprehend as tended to keep them in the back ground.
It is generally in flower at all seasons, but most abundantly during the rainy ones. I have not heard of the fruit having been tried, nor have I ever had the curiosity to taste it myself. It is about the size of a pigeon's egg, purple when ripe.
XXXI.-CRASSULACEE-STONECROP TRIBE.
This is a family of succulent "plants, of which a good many are natives of Europe, but many more of the Cape of Good Hope, where succulent plants of all kinds are most abun- dant. In India they are so very rare, that our peninsular Flora only includes 5 species,
- When this sheet was passing through the press I received some unpublished papers of the late Mr. Griffith, who has
most elaborately dissected and delineated the progressive developement of the flower of P. kermesina, from its earliest stages, and concludes from his examination, that the coronal processes are neither metamorphosed petals nor stamens. He says, "the processes or ciliæ are ulterior, neither (them nor the tube of the calyx) appearing until the ovules have commenced being coated, and the anthers so far perfected as to present parent cells." His dissections further show that both the stamens and petals are formed before any trace of the coronet is perceptible. He thence infers." that their late appearance and irregularity, connected with their outside station, is a proof that they are not stamenal, but mere cellular processes from the tube of the calyx." Lastly he remarks, "The processes are of late appearance, the sepals being hooded, the stamens sulcate down the middle, the petals rather larger, the pistillum a three lobed disc before any signs of processes." -See Griffith's posthumous papers now publishing in Supt. to the Calcutta Journal of Nat. History.
