PASSIONFLOWER, PassPra, a genus of plants almost exclusively natives of the warm parts of America. and belonging to the natural order puetiTorarea7 an order of exogenous plants, of which more than 200 species are known, mostly (•limbers, having tendrils which spring from the axils of the leaves, herbaceous or half shrubby, Datives of tropical and subtropical countries, but rare in Asia and Africa. The leaves of the passifforacem are alternate, single, and variously lobed. The flowers are generally hernmph•odite, with a colored calyx, generally of live segments; the :egments of the corolla equal in number to those of the calyx or absent, and several rows of fila mentous processes springing from within the cup which is formed by the consoli dated calyx :Ind corolla; the stamens, generally five, and generally united by their fila ments. inserted at the base of the tube of the calyx; the ovary free, generally elevated on a long stalk, one-celled; three thick styles with dilated stigmas; ovules numerous. The fruit is either fleshy or capsular. In the passion-flowers it is fleshy. This genus has received its name fanciful persons among the first Spanish set tlers in America, imagining that they saw in its flowers a representation of our Lord's passion; the filamentous processes being taken to represent the crown of thorns, the nail-shaped styles the nails of the cross, and the five anthers the marks of the wounds. The species arc mostly half shrubby evergreen climbers. of rapid growth;
and most of them have lobed leaves, with from two to seven lobes. Thu flowers of many are large and beautiful, on which account they are often cultivated in hot-houses. Some of the species are also cultivated in tropical countries for their fruit, particularly those of which the fruit is known by the name granadilla (q.v.). The fruit of I'. edulis is also somewhat acid and of a pleasant flavor, and ices flavored with it are delicious. Its fruit is about two incites long, and an inch and a half in diameter, of a livid purple color, with orange pulp.—The fruit of some species of pasSion-flower, however, is not only uneatable, but and the mots, leaves, and flower of sonic, as well as of other pamifilrac.ce, have medicinal properties, narcotic, emmenagogue, anthelmintie, febrifu gal, etc. P. rubra is called Dutchman's laudanum in Jamaica, because a tincture of the flowers is used as a substitute for laudanum. The most hardy species of passion-flower is the BLUE PASSION-PLOWER (P. cxorulea), which grows well enough in some parts of Prance, and oven in the s. of England. Where the climate is suitable, passion-flowers form an admirable covering for arbors and trellises.