34 NEILGHERRY PLANTS, 
adverse to this view : further, he requires that the spur, which is invariably pendulous, and 
the part of the flower most remote from the axis or stalk that bears it, that is when placed 
horizontally, should be considered, not normally so, but by a twist of the pedicel, and that its 
true position is posterior or next the axis. He, therefore, like Kunth, views the spur as the 
odd sepal, but thinks its proper position should be posterior next the axis, while Kunth con- 
siders it anterior or remote from the axis. Analogy and the position of the bracts are in 
fayour of Roeper’s view, the odd sepal of both Tropeoleae and Geranracee, two very nearly 
related orders, being posterior and often spurred. Should the odd sepal of Balsaminee 
prove anterior, then it will stand, in that respect, in the same relation to these 
other orders, as Leguminose does to Rosacee, if posterior, they may all be united 
into a class. Should Roeper’s view prove, as I believe it will, the correct one, it will go 
far to unite the four orders, Balsaminee, Geraniacee, Tropelee and Oxalidee into one great 
family, all having the same arrangement of the partsof the flower, all, except the last, having 
spurred sepals, and in allthe spurred or odd sepal posterior. Dr. Lindley, in his school 
Botany, seems to take an opposite view of Gerantacee ; as, in his diagram, he represents the 
odd sepal anterior, which is, I find, an error, perhaps of the printer. As such discussions are 
not easily foliowed without the assistance of figures, I shall introduce into the next part an 
undescribed species which I lately found, adding diagrams explanatory of the above descrip- 
tions, 
Though thus affording <n admirable field for the display of Botanical ingenuity, 
the plants of this family have nothing to recommend them to our attention except their 
beauty as flowers, and it is certainly surprising to me that they are not more prized by the 
florist, the common Balsam, Impatiens Balsamina, being the only one I have seenin culti- 
vation, a distinction which, when double, it well merits. Many other species, however, are, in 
their natural state, much finer than the wild Balsam, and would, I believe, become much finer 
flowers if cultivated with equal care, such I conceive would be the case with either J. fruticosa, 
I. scapiflora or I. fasciculata, all most common on the hills during the rainy season, 
the latter ornamenting every swamp and ditch side with its numerous large rose-coloured 
flowers. 
There are but two genera of this order, Impatiens and Hydrocera. The species of 
the former are very numerous ; of the latter three or four only are yet known. Those of the 
former extend from the equator as far into the Northern temperate zone as Denmark ; two 
are found in North America; Eastwards, they extend to Java and China, while a few are found 
in Southern Africa ; of Hydrocera, three species only are known, one Indian, frequent in 
Tanjore, Malabar and Ceylon, one from Java and one from Madagascar. I have only found 
the Indian one on the plains, never assuming an alpine character. 
IMPATIENS.— Balsam. 
Sepals 5, apparently only 4 from the union of the two upper ones, Petals 4, apparently only 2 
from the union of each of the lower to each of the lateral ones. Filaments 5, more or less united at the 
apex: anthers opening longitudinally or transversely, Ovarium 5-celled; cells formed by membranous 
