IMPATIENS PALLIDA FORMA SPECIOSA F. NOT. 



O. E. Jennings. 



A number of color forms of the Spotted Jewelweed or 

 Touch-me-not (Impatiens biflora Walt.) have been described in 

 recent years* and Clute has described! a white form of the 

 Pale Jewelweed (7. pallida Nutt.). As herbarium specimens of 

 Impatiens are quite unsatisfactory on account of the very 

 perishable flowers the writer has been careful in the last two or 

 three years to note and collect unusual forms. 



The most notable find thus far has been a pale cream- 

 colored and altogether very pretty form of the ordinarily pale 

 yellow-flowered Impatiens pallida. This new acquaintance 

 appears not to be Clute's white-flowered form and so it is 

 described as follows: 



Impatiens pallida forma speciosa f. nov. 



Perianthiis cremoricoloratis, sepali saccati parte ventrali 

 intrinsecus rubro-maculata. 



The perianths cream-color; the ventral inner surface of the 

 saccate sepal dotted with red. 



The type specimen (Pennsylvania Herbarium, Carnegie 

 Museum) was collected by O. E. Jennings, August 27, 1919, 

 from among an extensive bed of typical Impatiens pallida on 

 the moist rocky walls of a cool, narrow ravine in Schenley Park, 

 Pittsburgh, Pa. 



This form appears to hold much the same relation to /, 

 pallida as does forma Peasei Weatherby to /. biflora. Other 

 characters were noted for f . speciosa, as follows : Stems shining, 

 not glaucous (/. biflora is usually strongly glaucous, in this 

 region at least) ; the petioles and upper surface of the midrib 

 are castaneous, the lower surface of the leaves paler; the 

 cream-colored flowers contrast strongly with the pale lemon 

 of the typical /. pallida, the carmine-red dots making a striking 

 and very pleasing combination of color; the sac averages about 

 2 cm. long and about the same in width (wider when pressed 

 out for a specimen), the spur being slender and abruptly 

 appressed to the sac, green-tipped, and about 5 mm. long; the 

 petals are about 2 cm. long, 12 mm. wide, with the basal lobe 

 about 10-12 cm. long and 3-5 mm. wide, the petal having a few 

 carmine-red dots at the base. 



*Weatherby, C. A. Color Forms of Impatiens biflora. Rhodora i9:115-118.. 

 July, 1917. 



Further Notes on Impatiens biflora. Rhodora ^i:98-100. May, 1919. 

 tClute, Willard N. Amer. Bot. 7:67. 1904. 



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