NORTH AMERICAN GERANIACEAE. 99 



IMPATIENS, L. Gen. no. 1008; Benth. ami Hook., Gen., i, 277. 



Animal herbs with succulent translucent stems, and thin alternate petioled simple 

 leaves, without stipules ; flowers several, on loosely branched bracteate axillary peduncles ; 

 sej)als 3, the posterior petaloid, saccate, and mostly slender-spurred; petals 5, the lateral 

 ones on each side united; stamens luiited somewhat by their appendaged filaments, and 

 with more or less connate anthers; style almost none; ovary not deepl}' lol>ed, its valves 

 breaking elastically from their septa and coiling; seed oblong, with four longitudinal 

 ridges, otherwise nearly smooth, exall)uminous, the embryo straight with nearly plane 

 cotyledons. — About 135 si)ecies, 20 in Africa; most of the others in tropical Asia. 



1. I. FULVA, Xutt. Gen. I, 146. /. lijiora, Walt. /. noUtangere, /?, Michx. I. 

 maculata, Muhl. Two to four feet high, brancilied, glabrous, somewhat orange or pur- 

 ple-tinted; leaves usually 2-3 in. long, a little glaucous below, elliptical-ovate, rather 

 obtuse, coarsely crenate-serrate, the short teeth mucronate or the lower subulate, base 

 subcordate or mostly acute; lower petioles about equalling the blade, the upper shorter; 

 peduncles equal to the leaves or the upper longer; pedicels 2-4, each with a single linear 

 bract about the middle; flowers orange-yellow mottled with red-brown; saccate sepal 

 longer than broad, rather abruptly contracted to a slender spur Avhich is half as long as 

 the sac or more, notched at the end, and usually closely incurved; cleistogene flowers 

 produced in abundance, the coherent nearly i-egular perianth carried up on the maturing- 

 ovary; capsule oblong, 1-4-seeded; seeds somewhat compressed, 3X5 mm. — Wet places, 

 Canada to Florida, west to Oregon and Alaska (ifide Ifeehan) ; introduced into England. 

 Pale, spotless flowers sometimes occur; and others destitute of a spur have been collected 

 from Massachusetts (Sobbins) to the Columbia Valley (Lyall). Yery similar to the 

 European /. nolitanyere, which has a more cornucopioid sac with its spur not toothed at 

 the end, and larger lateral petals. 



2. I. PALLIDA, Xutt. I. c. I. noUtangere, Michx. I. aurea, Muhl. Larger in every 

 way, as much as 5-6 feet high, and paler; leaves sometimes 10 X 17 mm., usually 5X9 

 or less; flowers pale yellow, less prominently mottled; hooded sepal as broad as long, the 

 notched spur not so closely incurved and less than one-third its length; bracts ovate, 

 acute; otherwise like the last. — Wet places, Canatla to Georgia, west to Saskatchewan 

 and Oregon, nsuall}^ less abundant than the preceding. A pink-flowered form is found 

 in New York {Dudley, Cayuga Flora, 19).— PI. 12, fig. 15. 



The lower teeth of the leaves of some species of ImpaUens are more or less nectar- 

 iferous at the apex; or, as in the garden balsam (/. balsamina), the petiole also bears 

 several such glands, which are homologous with the serrations of the blade. According 

 to Delpino, these are contrivances by which a body-guard of ants is kept on the plant, 

 for its defence against caterpillars and other enemies. 



The flowers of /. pallida and I. fulva, like those of the related European I. noUtangere, 

 secrete nectar in a spur foi-med from the prolonged posterior sepal, and advertised by 

 the bright coloring of this sepal and the petals. They are protandrous, and evidently 

 adapted to loollination by rather long-tongued humble-bees, which find an alighting place 



