BUCKTHORN FAMILY 59 



Family 89. BALSAMINACEAE. 

 Jewel- WEED Family. 



Succulent herbaceous plants, with alternate simple leaves and showy irregular 

 flowers, or the later flowers small, cleistogamous and apetalous. Sepals 3, the two 

 lateral ones small and green, the posterior one large, petaloid, saccate and spurred. 

 Petals 5, or usually 3, with two of them 2-cleft into unequal lobes. Stamens 5, short ; 

 filaments with scale-like appendages on the inner side and more or less united ; 

 anthers connivent or coherent. Ovary oblong, 5-celled ; style very short or obsolete ; 

 stigma 5-lobed ; ovules several in each cell. Fruit a slender capsule, elastically de- 

 hiscing into 5 coiled valves, expelling the oblong seeds ; endosperm none ; embryo 

 straight, with flat cotyledons. 



A family of 2 genera and about 220 species, mostly natives of tropical Asia. The monotypic genus Hydrocera 

 differs from Impatiens in having a 4-S -celled indehiscent berry. 



1. IMPATIENS [Rivin.] L. Sp. PL 937. 1753. 



Our species annuals with 3 petals, each of the posterior ones being united with the 

 adjoining lateral one to form an unequally 2-cleft petal. Capsule narrow, 5-celled. [Name 

 Latin, in allusion to the elastically dehiscent capsule.] 



About 220 species, mostly natives of tropical Asia. Seven or eight species occur in North and Central 

 America. Type species, Impatiens Noli-tangere L. 



Posterior sepal spurred, the spur more or less strongly incurved. 



Flowers orange-yellow; sack about 12 mm. long. 1. /. aurella. 



Flowers pale yellow; sack about 20 mm. long. 2. I. occidentalis. 



Posterior sepal not spurred. 3. /. ecalcarata. 



L Impatiens aurella Rydb. Pale-yellow Touch-me-not. Fig. 3100. 



Impatiens aurella "RyAh. Bull. Torrey Club 28 : 34. 1900. 



Stems 5-6 dm. high, slender, light green, branching above. Leaves 2-8 cm. long, ovate to 

 oval, coarsely serrate-dentate, thin, bright green above, paler beneath ; petioles 5-40 mm. long ; 

 pedicels very slender; lateral sepals ovate, 4-5 mm. long; posterior sepal conical, 10-15 rnm. long, 

 orange, unspotted ; spur strongly incurved, about 8 mm. long ; petals 3, the anterior one triangular- 

 obovate, emarginate, 5 mm. long, 8 mm. wide; capsule oblong-linear, 15-20 mm. long. 



Moist ground, Upper Sonoran and Transition Zones; eastern Washington and British Columbia to Idaho 

 and Montana. Type locality: Priest River, Idaho. Aug.-Sept. 



Closely related to Impatiens biflora Walt, of the eastern United States, which has larger spotted flowers. 



2. Impatiens occidentalis Rydb. Western Jewel-weed. Fig. 3101. 



Impatiens occidentalis Rydb. N. Amer. Fl. 25: 94. 1910. 



Stems light green, about 1 m. high, branching above. Leaves oval, 2-10 cm. long, thin light 

 green, serrate-dentate; inflorescence 3— 5-flowered ; pedicels very slender; lateral sepals obovate, 

 abruptly acuminate, 6 mm. long ; posterior sepal conical, about 2 cm. long, pale yellow, unspotted 

 or minutely dotted, its spur strongly incurved ; anterior petal pale yellow, broadly obovate, about 

 7 mm. long and 10 mm. wide; capsule linear-clavate, 15-20 mm. long. 



Wet places, Humid Transition and Canadian Zones; Alaska to western Washington. Type locality: along 

 streams in damp woods, North Fork of Nooksack River, Washington. July-Sept. 



This species has been referred to the Eurasian species Impatiens Noli-tangere L. and was formerly con- 

 sidered as introduced on the Pacific Coast. 



3. Impatiens ecalcarata Blankinship. Spurless Jewel-weed. Fig. 3102. 



Impatiens ecalcarata Blankinship, Mont. Agr. Coll. Sci. Stud. 1:85. 1905. 



Stems slender, light green, about 1 m. high. Leaves ovate to ovate-elliptic, 2-10 cm. long, 

 obliquely dentate ; inflorescence 2-6-flowered ; lateral sepals obliquely oval, 6 mm. long ; posterior 

 sepal helmet-shaped, unspurred, 8-10 mm. long, and a little wider, pale yellow, unspotted ; petals 

 pale yellow. 



Wet shady places, Canadian and Transition Zones; southeastern British Columbia to Montana and Oregon. 

 In the Pacific States it has been collected in the Columbia Valley {Lyall) and at Ilwaco, Washington, and 

 Clatskanie, Oregon. Type locality: damp shady margin of a stream, Missoula County, Montana. Aug.-Sept. 



Family 90. RHAMNACEAE. 

 Buckthorn Family. 



Small trees, shrubs, or a few climbers, often thorny, with simple generally alter- 

 nate leaves. Stipules present, small and deciduous or sometimes corky and per- 

 sistent. Flowers small, regular, perfect or polygamous, usually in axillary or ter- 



