22 SIR J. D. HOOKER ON THE SPECIES OF 
On the Species of Zmpatiens in the Wallichign Herbarium of the 
Linnean Society. By Sir J. D. Hooker, G.C.S.I., F.R.S., 
F.L.S. 
[ Read 2nd June, 1904.] 
Tur species of Impatiens in the Wallichian Herbarium, con- 
sisting almost exclusively of those collected by Wallich or his 
employés in Nepal and Silhet, together with those of the 
missionaries in Malabar, made during the latter half of the 
18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, represent nearly all 
that was known of the Indian Balsams at the date of the 
distribution of that Herbarium. They amount to 48 ticketed 
species (Nos. 4729-4775 & 7274, 7275), of which 18 are from 
Malabar, as many from Nepal, 10 from Silhet, 6 from Burma 
(including Rangoon and Tavoy), and 2 from Sirmore. Though 
comparatively few in number, for the genus is now known to 
contain upwards of 200 British Indian species, they foreshadow 
the remarkable fact of a segregation of these in the several 
phytogeographical regions of India in which they occur *, which 
has no parallel in any other large genus of plants known to me. 
* Of the 200 British Indian species (many of them as yet unpublished) 
there are, in the Kew Herbarium, approximately 23 from the Himalaya west 
of Nepal, 63 from the Eastern Himalaya (inclusive of the Valley of Katmandu 
in Central Nepal), 52 from Burma (inclusive of Assam and Silhet), 58 from 
Malabar, and 21 from Ceylon. Of the 23 West Himalayan species only 11 have 
been found in the Eastern Himalaya, of which 8 alone enter Sikkim. In other 
terms, of nearly 80 Himalayan species only about one-tenth are known to be com- 
mon to both sections of the range, a proportion which will be greatly reduced 
when the unexplored ranges East of Sikkim are botanized. Of the 52 Burman 
species only 10 have been found in the Eastern Himalaya. The 7 Malayan 
Peninsular species are absent elsewhere in India. Of the 53 Malabar species 
only J. Balsamina, L., oppositifolia, L., and chinensis, L., are found elsewhere 
in British India; only 8 of the 58 inhabit Ceylon. 
This segregation of species extends in a marked degree to that of the two 
great divisions of the genus, namely those species with capsules turgid in the 
middle, and those with capsules linear or clavate. Every Malabar and Ceylon 
species belongs to the first of these divisions; every Western Himalayan 
(except I. Balsamina) to the second. Of the Eastern Himalayan the great 
majority belong to the second ; of the Burman the great majority belong to 
the first, as do all the Malay Peninsular. I have little doubt that when the 
Himalayan ranges Hast of Sikkim and the mountain regions of Burma 
come to be explored botanically, the number of British Indian species will 
approach 300. 
