The sweet calabash of the West Indies is the fruit of a passion-flower (Passiflóra malifórmis). The fruit has a most beautiful appearance in its native woods, and it has been in a few instances produced in England. It is round, about the size of an apple, with a smooth, but very thick rind, and has a great number of black seeds among its yellow pulp. The flowers of this species are delightfully fragrant, and of a reddish colour. The fruit of this kind, as well as that of four others, is sometimes called the granadilla, or little pomegranate. Some of the other granadilla vines bear large oval fruits, of a rich violet colour, much resembling in appearance that of the purple egg plant, and highly aromatic in flavour.

Another species of passion - flower bears a berry the size of an olive, which, as well as the flowers, is much used in Jamaica to form a syrup, valued by the West Indians.

The thread-like coloured stamens which surround the flower-like rays, and some other portions of this delicately constructed blossom,

attracted the notice of the Spaniards in their conquest of America, and induced them to give it the name of passion-flower. To their enthusiastic imaginations, the different parts of the blossoms figured the number of the Apostles, the rays of glory, the nails, the hammer-those sad signs of the Saviour's passion! and the sight of this wondrous symbol in the far-off wilderness, was to them an assurance of conquests which were to be effected under the name of religion. More anxious to promote their own peculiar doctrines of faith, and to ensure a temporal dominion, than to exemplify the spirit of Him whom they professed to follow, the very men who beheld in a flower of the forest an emblem of love-an emblem for faith to rest upon carried misery wherever they raised their standard.

It requires some imagination to see, in the passion-flower, a symbol of the subject it is thought to represent; but it is still, in some Catholic countries, regarded with great veneration and affection, and considered a marvel

lous confirmation of the scriptural doctrine of the Atonement.

The passion-flower gives its name to the natural order Passifloreæ, which contains but few other plants, and none of them natives of Britain.

CHAPTER X.

SWEET-PEA- TENDRILS MORNING AFTER A SUMMER STORM-NATIVE COUNTRIES OF SWEET-PEA- EVERLASTING PEA-WILD YELLOW VETCHLING-BEAUTY OF STREAMS IN THE COUNTRY CHICKLING VETCH TUBEROUS-ROOTED PEA-USE OF ITS TUBERS IN HOLLAND-LEGUMINOUS PLANTS-BROOM-LABURNUM

FIELD

BEAN

MELILOT-TREFOILS CORAL TREE

DECANNEE BEAN-MIMOSA JUDAS TREE MOVING SAINTFOIN-VALUE OF LEGUMINOUS PLANTS-VERSES

ON WILD FLOWERS.

Few self-supported flowers endure the wind
Uninjured, but expect the upholding aid
Of the smooth-shaven prop, and neatly tied,
Are wedded thus, like beauty to old age
For interest sake, the living to the dead.
Some clothe the soil that feeds them, far diffused
And lowly creeping, modest and yet fair,
Like virtue thriving most where little seen:
Some more aspiring catch the neighbour shrub
With clasping tendrils, and invest his branch,
Else unadorned, with many a gay festoon
And fragrant chaplet, recompensing well
The strength they borrow, with the grace they lend.

Cowper.

EVERY one is disposed to acknowledge that circular or spiral lines are more pleasing to the

eye than straight or angular ones. Philosophers may not coincide as to the degree of influence exerted over our tastes by associations already formed in our minds respecting them, but the fact is indisputable. The tendril upon plants, that graceful spiral shoot, by which the weak cling to the strong, affords a pleasing illustration of Hogarth's line of beauty, and is beautiful, even to those who, in their observations, recognise no science, but judge simply by their uninstructed senses.

Many weak plants are provided with tendrils, by whose means they attain to great height, or

are enabled to resist the winds. The tendril or clasper (called by botanists cirrus,) is at first a straight thread-like shoot, which afterwards assumes a spiral form, and clinging to some other object, becomes gradually firmer in its texture. That its mode of growth gives this prop additional strength, is evident from the fact that the tendril of a plant is much stronger than a straight branch of equal size. On some tendrils other shoots put forth, forming a com