passion-flower

plural passion-flowers

1. alternativeAlternative form of passionflower.

   A great cluster of passion-flowers stood near the verandah, and I stooped to gather some of the sad, mystical flowers. I always loved passion-flowers; roses and other flowers there were in profusion; but I preferred my passion-flowers.

   1876, S. L. Brand, Dora: A Life Story, London: Charing Cross Publishing Company, Limited, […], page 85

   3 more examples

   Surrounded by lofty airy cassias, broad-leaved, white-stemmed cecropias, thick-crowned myrtles, large-flowered bignonias, climbing tufts of the mellifluous paullinias, far-spreading tendrils of the passion-flower, and of the richly flowering hatched coronilla, above which rise the waving summits of Macaubu palms, we fancied ourselves transported into the gardens of the Hesperides.

   1824, Joh[ann] Bapt[ist] von Spix, C[arl] F[riedrich] Phil[ipp] von Martius, Travels in Brazil, in the Years 1817-1820. Undertaken by Command of His Majesty the King of Bavaria., volume the first, London: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, […], pages 207–208

   A delightful residence was made of the house; it was raised a storey, surrounded by a verandah, and half hidden under beautiful trees—mimosas, fig-sycamores, bauhinias, and paullinias, whose trunks were invisible beneath a network of scarlet-flowered bromelias and passion-flowers.

   1881, Jules Verne, translated by W. J. Gordon, The Giant Raft (Part I); Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, […], page 32

   “Why, Ethel,” he cried “these are passion-flowers! Who ever heard of a bride with a bouquet of passion-flowers? What an evil omen, my darling! I am not superstitious, but it has frightened me.” “Nor am I superstitious,” she said, laughing. “Why did you gather them?” he asked. “Passion-flowers on a wedding-day! Why did you gather them, Ethel?”

   1900 April 12, Bertha M. Clay, “Repented at Leisure”, in Wood County Reporter, Grand Rapids, Wis.: A. L. Fontaine