Calyx-tube cylindrical or club-shaped; the limb 5-parted, persistent. Petals 5 or 10, regular, spreading, flat, convolute in the bud, deciduous. Stamens indefinite, rarely few, inserted with the petals on the throat of the calyx. Styles 3, more or less united into one; stigmas terminal, minute. Capsule at length dry and opening by valves or irregularly at the summit, few–many-seeded. Seeds flat, anatropous, with little albumen.—Stems erect. Leaves alternate, very adhesive by the barbed pubescence. Flowers terminal, solitary or cymose-clustered. (Dedicated to C. Mentzel, an early German botanist.)
[*] Seeds few, oblong, not winged; petals 5, not large; filaments all filiform.
1. M. oligospérma, Nutt. Rough and adhesive (1–3° high), much branched, the brittle branches spreading; leaves ovate and oblong, cut-toothed or angled, often petioled; flowers yellow (7–10´´ broad), opening in sunshine; petals wedge-oblong, pointed; stamens 20 or more; capsule small, about 9-seeded.—Prairies and plains, Ill. to Kan. and Col., south to Tex.
[*][*] Seeds numerous, rounded and wing-margined; petals 10, large and showy; outer filaments petaloid in n. 3; capsule large, oblong; leaves sessile.
2. M. ornàta, Torr. & Gray. Stout, 1–2° high; leaves oblong-lanceolate, deeply repand-toothed or pinnatifid, the segments acute; calyx-tube leafy-bracteate; petals 2–3´ long, yellowish-white; filaments all filiform or the outer dilated below; capsule 1{½}–2´ long; seeds narrowly margined.—On the plains, W. Dak. to central Kan. and Tex.
3. M. nùda, Torr. & Gray. More slender, 1–5° high; leaves somewhat lanceolate, rather bluntly or shortly repand-dentate; flowers half as large as in the last; calyx not bracteate; outer filaments narrowly dilated, sterile; capsule about 1´ long; seeds plainly winged.—Plains of Dak. to central Kan. and Tex.
Order 44. PASSIFLORÀCEÆ. (Passion-Flower Family.)
Herbs or woody plants, climbing by tendrils, with perfect flowers, 5 monadelphous stamens, and a stalked 1-celled ovary free from the calyx, with 3 or 4 parietal placentæ, and as many club-shaped styles.
1. PASSIFLÒRA, L. Passion-Flower.
Calyx of 5 sepals united at the base into a short cup, imbricated in the bud, usually colored like the petals, at least within; the throat crowned with a double or triple fringe. Petals 5, on the throat of the calyx. Stamens 5; filaments united in a tube which sheathes the long stalk of the ovary, separate above; anthers large, fixed by the middle. Berry (often edible) many-seeded; the anatropous albuminous seeds invested by a pulpy covering. Seed-coat brittle, grooved.—Leaves alternate, generally palmately lobed, with stipules. Peduncles axillary, jointed. Ours are perennial herbs. (An adaptation of flos passionis, a translation of fior della passione, the popular Italian name early applied to the flower from a fancied resemblance of its parts to the implements of the crucifixion.)