Tas. 4739. 
IMPATIENS Jerponti. 
Mrs. Jerdon’s Balsam. 
Nat. Ord. BALSAMINEH.—PENTANDRIA MonoGyNia. 
Gen. Char. (Vide supra, Tas. 4615.) 
Impatiens Jerdonie ; epiphyta, caulibus aggregatis simplicibus brevibus crasso- 
carnosis purpureis hic illic radicantibus, foliis sul terminalibus ovatis acutis 
serratis, petiolis folio triplo brevioribus ad apicem glandulosis, pedunculis 
axillaribus 2—4-floris, pedicellis pedunculo longioribus (rubris), sepalis la- 
teralibus lanceolatis anteriore amplo saccato compresso apice calcare brevi 
obtuso sursum curvato. “Fane go. x Se 
Impatiens Jerdonie. Wight, Ic. Plant. Ind. Or. v. 4. t. 1602. 
Rooting, and we might almost call them tuberous, stems of this _ 
curious Balsam, were sent from the Neilgherries, by Mr. M‘Ivor, © 
to the Royal Gardens of Kew, in 1852, and the no less singular 
blossoms were produced in the greenhouse in June of the follow- 
ing year. It proves to be the L. Jerdonia of Dr. Wight, though 
his figure represents the spur much longer, and the stem much 
slenderer, than in our specimens. A more accurate represen- 
tation of this plant, drawn on its native hills by Mrs. Norton 
(the accomplished lady of the recently retired Judge-Advocate of 
Madras), corresponds in every respect with the plant before us. 
The large and strikingly-formed flowers have a mixture of green, 
red, and yellow in them. The anterior petal, or nectary of Lin- 
neus, is wholly red, and so remarkable in shape, that Dr. Wight 
suggests that this, and its ally, Z Walkeri (see Companion to 
the Bot. Mag. vol. i. pp. 821, tab. 18), might constitute a na- 
tural section of the genus: all of it is a sack, or, as Dr. Wight 
observes, there is no limb; in other words, the ‘spur absorbs 
the whole of the limb in its formation. Dr. Wight's figure re- 
“era the apex of the nectary much longer than it 1s m our 
plant. 
SEPTEMBER lst, 1853. 
