CHAPTER XXIV

THE PASSION FLOWER

THE next plant returns to the rule of five. It is one that has a glorious name, the beautiful Passion Flower. It is a South American plant, but will grow freely in England, so that even cottage walls may be wreathed with its climbing stems, twisting tendrils, and hand-like leaves. It is so curious that I will give you a close description of it, which you may compare with the flower when it is in blossom. The calyx does not, as usual, form the bud; there are three large pale leaves, or bracts, just outside, which fold over the blossom and hide its mysteries till they are ready to unclose. Within these are the corolla and calyx, each consisting of five divisions, and so much of the same colour that we should take them all alike for petals if botanists did not tell us to think otherwise; the calyx leaflets may be distinguished from the petals by an odd little horn growing on the back of each. Within is the especial glory of the flower, a circlet of fleshy threads, spreading out like rays, and marked with brilliant blue, black, crimson, and white. Some sorts have ring within ring, growing gradually shorter, till they end round the column in the centre, where on one stem, as it may be called, grow both stamens and pistils, five yellow anthers

arranged in a circle, and not, like other anthers, opening their boxes of pollen downwards, but holding them upwards. Why is this? How is the pollen to reach the germ if it is not as usual poured down?

There is a fruit-bearing passion flower with large yellow berries, and there are purple and crimson sorts. It is curious that while the fruit is harmless the root is poisonous.

Climbing and weak like the passion flowers are the whole tribe of Gourds, but they have the habit of keeping all their stamens in one blossom, all their pistils in another, and the pollen is carried by the bees, who like to revel in their yellow depths. They all have soft trailing stems of marvellously quick growth, large pinnate leaves, and blossoms generally yellow, of one petal divided into five; in the stamen-bearing ones containing three filaments and anthers closely joined, like the brotherhood class; and the pistil-bearing perched above a great swelling germ, which in time becomes a very large fruit.

Here in England we are obliged to raise them under glasses, as the heat is not sufficient to bring them forward; and here, for want of winds and bees to waft the pollen, gardeners are obliged to do it themselves, and carry the stamens to the pistil, before the fruit can be formed.

The cucumber is the most grown and most useful; next to this comes the melons, handsome round fruits, full of fleshy pulp, most cool and delicious, with its sharp taste. The water-melon is full of juice, which is most precious to people in hot countries. In Italy men set up booths with shelves of water-melons, slices of which they sell to the thirsty people, who enjoy them exceedingly; and in the East they are much prized. It seems a special gift of Providence that with very little water these im

mense plants should grow up bearing such a profusion of the coolest fruit.

Sometimes the gourd plants are trained over porches and trellises so as to make a cool and beautiful bower. You remember how Jonah rejoiced in the gourd that grew over him, most likely supplying him with food and drink as well as shelter, and how he was grieved when the worm at its root withered it at once away in a single night.

Here the first touch of frost is as effectual as the worm, and our great vegetable marrows that the day before threatened to take the whole garden for themselves with their noble branches and great leaves and mighty fruit are, on the October morning, nothing but a spectacle of yellow ruin and decay, showing indeed how "the creature is subject to vanity."

Some kinds of gourds have a rind which becomes very hard, and these are very useful to the Hindoos and many other dwellers in hot countries. They scrape out the inside, fill the rind up with sand to prevent it from contracting, and set it in the sun to dry, when it becomes a vessel capable of holding water, and often called a calabash. Another kind is called the bottle-gourd, because by tying a band round the fruit when young it is made to grow into the shape of a bottle. For many reasons, therefore, these great fruits, though all kinds are not equally wholesome for food, are very precious, and are much grown in the East. You know the prophet Isaiah speaks of the "daughter of Zion being left like a lodge in a garden of cucumbers," meaning the little hut built in a field of melons where a man might be set to watch lest they should be stolen. As lonely stood Jerusalem when all her surrounding villages had been destroyed.

The pumpkin is a fine handsome gourd, often marbled

arranged in a circle, and not, like other anthers, opening their boxes of pollen downwards, but holding them upwards. Why is this? How is the pollen to reach the germ if it is not as usual poured down?

There is a fruit-bearing passion flower with large yellow berries, and there are purple and crimson sorts. It is curious that while the fruit is harmless the root is poisonous.

Climbing and weak like the passion flowers are the whole tribe of Gourds, but they have the habit of keeping all their stamens in one blossom, all their pistils in another, and the pollen is carried by the bees, who like to revel in their yellow depths. They all have soft trailing stems of marvellously quick growth, large pinnate leaves, and blossoms generally yellow, of one petal divided into five; in the stamen-bearing ones containing three filaments and anthers closely joined, like the brotherhood class; and the pistil-bearing perched above a great swelling germ, which in time becomes a very large fruit.

Here in England we are obliged to raise them under glasses, as the heat is not sufficient to bring them forward; and here, for want of winds and bees to waft the pollen, gardeners are obliged to do it themselves, and carry the stamens to the pistil, before the fruit can be formed.

The cucumber is the most grown and most useful; next to this comes the melons, handsome round fruits, full of fleshy pulp, most cool and delicious, with its sharp taste. The water-melon is full of juice, which is most precious to people in hot countries. In Italy men set up booths with shelves of water-melons, slices of which they sell to the thirsty people, who enjoy them exceedingly; and in the East they are much prized. It seems a special gift of Providence that with very little water these im

mense plants should grow up bearing such a profusion of the coolest fruit.

Sometimes the gourd plants are trained over porches and trellises so as to make a cool and beautiful bower. You remember how Jonah rejoiced in the gourd that grew over him, most likely supplying him with food and drink as well as shelter, and how he was grieved when the worm at its root withered it at once away in a single night.

Here the first touch of frost is as effectual as the worm, and our great vegetable marrows that the day before threatened to take the whole garden for themselves with their noble branches and great leaves and mighty fruit are, on the October morning, nothing but a spectacle of yellow ruin and decay, showing indeed how "the creature is subject to vanity."

Some kinds of gourds have a rind which becomes very hard, and these are very useful to the Hindoos and many other dwellers in hot countries. They scrape out the inside, fill the rind up with sand to prevent it from contracting, and set it in the sun to dry, when it becomes a vessel capable of holding water, and often called a calabash. Another kind is called the bottle-gourd, because by tying a band round the fruit when young it is made to grow into the shape of a bottle. For many reasons, therefore, these great fruits, though all kinds are not equally wholesome for food, are very precious, and are much grown in the East. You know the prophet Isaiah speaks of the "daughter of Zion being left like a lodge in a garden of cucumbers," meaning the little hut built in a field of melons where a man might be set to watch lest they should be stolen. As lonely stood Jerusalem when all her surrounding villages had been destroyed.

The pumpkin is a fine handsome gourd, often marbled