162 



FAMILIES OF FLOWEEING PLANTS 



Fig. 141. The pale touch-me-not (Impatiens aurea). After Britton & Brown, 111. Fl. Northeast. U. S. 



New Jersey tea, from the fact that the leaves were used as tea by the 

 troops during the Revolution. 



The fruits of various species of Zizyphus are largely eaten in the 

 Orient, particularly those of the jujube (Z.j/iijuba). 



Some of the woody climbers belonging to this family are respon- 

 sible in the tropics for the impenetrable jungle of vegetable ropes or 

 lianas which must be cut apart before a path can be made. In the 

 West Indies and on the Florida Keys, Gonania Domingensis is an 

 example. The photograph (Fig. 142) shows the clusters of small flow- 

 ers and the tendrils by which the plant climbs. Throughout our South- 

 ern States the supplejack {Berchemia volubilis) is conspicuous in swamps, 

 its slender rope-like stems possessing a wonderful degree of tenacity. 



