234 Rhodora [ DECEMBER 
THE FIG AS A HARDY PLANT IN NEW ENGLAND. — For some years 
the edible fig, Ficus carica, L., has maintained itself in Providence, 
Rhode Island, in a suffrutescent state. With its roots deeply buried 
in the cellar walls of a ruined house, it every year comes up, very 
late, but thrives vigorously. Finally, it is caught by the autumnal 
frosts, and all parts above ground perish. I have repeatedly thought 
I had seen the last of the plant, when suddenly it would again throw 
up its shoots. 
In August of this year, I found /icus carica, L., growing under 
very similar conditions in a waste lot in Gloucester, Mass. I do not 
know if it maintains itself through the winter. 
W. Wuirman BaiLEv, Brown University, 
SOME OBSERVATIONS UPON THE EARLY GROWTH OF 
IMPATIENS BIFLORA. 
C. B. GRAVES. 
Ir may not be generally known that the common jewel-weed, 
Impatiens biflora Walt. (Z. fulva Nutt.), at one stage of its growth is 
an opposite-leaved plant. At any rate there is no mention of this 
feature in such descriptions of the genus as are accessible to me. 
That such is the fact, however, is easily seen by examining a patch of 
young plants in the spring. Following the cotyledons come either 
three or four pairs of strictly opposite leaves at well-marked nodes. 
These nodes persist throughout the season, becoming, in fact, much 
more prominent later, and frequently have opposite branches arising 
from them. In this young stage the alternate arrangement is to be 
found only beginning among the very small leaves crowded at the 
summit, At this time the most conspicuous feature is the distant 
pairs of long-petioled opposite leaves, and this, with: the slender 
unbranched stem and small size ( 6 to 15 inches tall in cool woods 
on May 3o of this year), gives the plants an appearance strikingly 
unlike that of the late summer specimens. 
Another point of interest is the early appearance of cleistogamous 
flowers. Already, by May 3o, in the woods visited on that date, 
they were uniformly present and young capsules were easily found. 
By the middle of June — probably earlier — pods were ripe and dis- 
charging seeds. ‘They continue to be abundantly produced for at 
