IMPATIENS IN THE WALLICHIAN HERBARIUM. 23 
Thus, of all the species contained in the Walliehian Herbarium, 
only one, J. Balsamina, L., is common to the five of the regions 
indicated in the note on the preceding page, namely, Eastern 
Himalayan, Western Himalayan, Burmese, Malabarian, Ceylonese 
and Malayan Peninsular. Of the 18 Malabarian 3 only were 
found in other regions: namely, J. Balsamina, L., in four others ; 
I. chinensis, L., in two; and J. oppositifolia, L., in one, Burma. 
Of the 18 Nepal species, two alone were colleeted in the 
adjoining region to the westward. Of the 10 Silhet species, 
two alone are Malabarian. 
The consultation of the Wallichian collection of Balsams 
presents great difficulties which it is the object of this com- 
munication to alleviate. In many cases two or more species are 
fastened down under one number and name; and in not a few 
cases one species occurs under several numbers. This is partly 
due to the great difficulty in distinguishing badly preserved 
mounted specimens of a puzzling genus without moistening and 
removing flowers of the most delicate consistency and making 
a microscopical examination of their organs; but a far more 
serious source of confusion is one the origin of which can only 
be conjectured: namely, that a part of the collection which, 
after being sorted for mounting (by Bentham, who appears 
to have ticketed the species), and transferred to the Society’s 
custody, had either fallen from the hands of a custodian 
or been swept off a table, and the scattered specimens and 
tickets had been dealt with in a haphazard way by an ignorant 
mounter *. It seems to me impossible otherwise to explain the 
occurrence upon one sheet, under one number (4730), of four 
species so totally dissimilar in habit, foliage, inflorescence, and 
flowers as J. racemosa, DC., I. bicornuta, Wall, I. tingens, 
Edgew., and I. odorata, D. Don; or of such three under 
No. 4729 as I. bicornuta, Wall., T. bicolor, Royle, and J. sulcata, 
Wall.; or the mounting side by side under No. 4770 excellent 
individuals of J. leptoceras, Wall., and J. Balsamina, L., which 
have no resemblance. l 
Further sources of difficulty are the misplacement of MSS. 
tickets, other than the lithographed numbered ones, that are 
attached by pins to the sheets of the species to which they 
belonged or were supposed to belong, the minuteness of the 
* There is no other instance known to me in the Walliehian Herbarium of 
a similar confusion of specimens and tickets. 
