PASSION PLAYS. See Drama, vol vii. p. 404. On the Oberammergau Passion Play, see Oberammergau.

PASSION WEEK, the fifth week in Lent, begins with Passion Sunday {Dominica Passionis or de Passione Domini), so called from very early times because with it begins the more special commemoration of Christ’s passion. In non-Catholic circles Passion Week is often identified with Holy Week {q.v.), but incorrectly.

PASSIONFLOWER(Passiflora) is the typical genus of the order to which it gives its name. The species are mostly natives of western tropical South America; others are found in various tropical and subtropical districts of both hemispheres. The tacsonias, by some considered to form part of this genus, inhabit the Andes at considerable elevations. They are mostly climbing plants (fig. 1 ) having a woody stock and herbaceous or woody branches, from the sides of which tendrils are produced which enable the branches to support themselves at little expenditure of tissue. Some few form trees of considerable stature destitute of tendrils, and with broad magnolia-like leaves in place of the more or less palmately-lobed leaves which are most generally met with in the order. Whatever be the form of leaf, it is usually provided at the base of the leafstalk with stipules, which are inconspicuous, or large and leafy; and the stalk is also furnished with one or more glandular excrescences, as in some cases are the leaf itself and the bracts. The inflorescence is of a cymose character, the terminal branch being represented by the tendril, the side-branches by flower-stalks, or the inflorescence may be reduced to a single stalk. The bracts on the flower-stalk are either small and scattered or large and leafy, and then placed near the flower forming a sort of outer calyx or epicalyx. The flower itself (seen in section in fig. 2) consists of a calyx varying in form from that of a shallow saucer to that of a long cylindrical or trumpet-shaped tube, thin or fleshy in consistence, and giving off from its upper border the five sepals, the five petals (rarely these latter are absent), and the threads or membranous processes constituting the “corona.” This coronet forms the most conspicuous ...