BALSAMINACE^— JEWEL-WEED 



FAMILY 



GOLDEN JEWEL-WEED. TOUCH-ME-NOT 



Impdtiens fiilva. Impdtiens hifldra 



Impaiiens, in allusion to the elastically bursting pods. 



An annual, native plant that grows in luxuriant pro- 

 fusion in shaded places along water-courses and in any 

 moist, well shaded area. The flowers are curious, swing- 

 ing cornucopias with slender, recurved, little tails. Nova 

 Scotia to Alaska, south to Florida and Missouri. July- 

 October. 



Roots. — Small and spreading, close to the surface. 



Stem. — Two to four feet high, pale green, often tinged 

 with red; smooth, hollow, translucent and watery, swollen 

 at the joints. Outer covering is a smooth, silken skin 

 which may be readily stripped off. 



Leaves. — Alternate, petioled, ovate; crenate-serrate 

 margin, soft green, rather thin; midrib prominent. 



Flowers. — Of two sorts, the larger ones of singular 

 shape; the general outline is that of a horizontal cornu- 

 copia, which tapers to a very slender recurved spur 

 and which is orange-yellow, more or less speckled with 

 reddish brown spots. Smaller flowers are cleistogamous, 

 self-fertilized in the bud, whose floral envelopes never 

 expand but are forced off by the growing pod. 



Calyx. — Of three sepals, the two lateral ones small, 

 green, nerved; the third, large, yellow, saccate, spurred. 



Corolla. — Petals five, or three, with two of them two- 

 cleft into dissimilar lobes, probably made up of a pair 

 united. 



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