Tas. 6643. 
IMPATIENS SuLTANI. 
Native of Zanzibar. 
Nat. Ord. GeRaAnrIAcEx,—Tribe BaLsaMINEX, 
Genus Impatiens, Linn.; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. vol. i. p. 277.) 
Impatiens Sultani; glaberrima, caule erecto ramoso ramisque robustis teretibus, 
foliis alternis longe petiolatis ovato-lanceolatis acuminatis basi acutis crenato- 
serratis sinubus setiferis, floribus axillaribus solitariis rarius in pedunculo 
communi 2-3-nis coccineis, bracteis minutis, sepalis parvis lanceolatis, vexillo 
obovato-rotundato retuso, alis 2-partitis segmentis w#qualibus cuneato-obovatis 
vexillo paullo majoribus, labio parvo lanceolato in calcar gracillimum curvum 
abrupte contracto. 
The mountains of India were long supposed to be the 
head-quarters of the Balsams, no less than 125 species, 
together with many varieties, having been described from 
that region. There are, however, indications of Tropical 
Africa proving a rival for this honour; for though owing to 
the fragile and membranous nature of the species, and 
their fugacious flowers, they are of all plants the most 
difficult to preserve in a dried state, and though the climate 
of Africa is most unpropitious to their being so preserved, 
no less than seventeen species are already described 
from that botanically unexplored country, in Oliver's 
“Flora of Tropical Africa.” Of these, only one has hitherto 
been figured in Europe, the I. bicolor (Plate 5366), a very 
handsome plant, native of the mountainous Island_ of 
Fernando Po and the Cameroons Mountains. The subject 
of the present plate is the second which has flowered in 
this country, and for gorgeous colouring and profuse 
flowering it is not surpassed by any of its congeners. Asa 
Species it comes very near to (and is possibly a form of) 
I. Walleriana, Hook. f., a native of the Mozambique district, 
at an elevation of 2000 feet, but it differs from that plant 
in the retuse standard, shorter spur, and axillary scarlet 
SEPTEMBER lst, 1882. 
