RHAMNACEAE 307 
fect, rather large and showy, on axillary or terminal, 1- to several-flowered 
peduncles. Sepals 3, imbricate, the posterior one large, petaloid, produced 
into a hollow sack or spur, the 2 anterior ones small, green. Petals 3 or 
5, the lateral ones 2-lobed. Stamens 5; filaments short, broad; anthers 
cohering. Disk none. Ovary oblong, 5-celled; stigma sessile, 5-toothed; 
ovules many. Fruit a loculicidal capsule, valves springing elastically 
away from the axis. Seeds smooth or tubercled, small. 
A single genus of over 350 species, very numerous in the mountains of 
tropical Asia and Africa, few in temperate Europe, North America, etc., 
about 25 species known from the Philippines, a single introduced one in 
our area. 
1. IMPATIENS Linnaeus 
Characters of the Family. (Latin “impatient” because of the elastically 
dehiscent capsules.) 
1. I. BALSAMINA L. Camantigui (Tag.); Balsamina (Sp.); Balsam. 
An erect, succulent, branched herb 1 m high or less. Leaves glabrous 
or somewhat pubescent, 3 to 5 cm long, narrowly lanceolate, or oblanceolate, 
acuminate, deeply serrate, alternate; petioles glandular. Flowers axillary, 
showy, 2 to 3 em long, usually pink, but forms with white, red, purple, and 
variegated petals found in cultivation, the spur long, slender. Fruit 
pubescent. (Fl. Filip. pl. 424.) 
A common and variable garden plant, cultivated for ornamental purposes, 
fl. more or less all the year, extensively cultivated in the Philippines, oc- 
casionally subspontaneous. A native of British India, now found in cultiva- 
tion in most warm and tropical countries. 
81. RHAMNACEAE (BUCKTHORN. OR LIGAA FAMILY) 
Erect trees or shrubs or scandent shrubs (in Gouania tendril-bearing), 
often spiny. Leaves simple, alternate, mostly 3- to 5-nerved, the stipules | 
small, often transformed into prickles. Flowers perfect or polygamous, 
small, in axillary or terminal cymes, fascicles, racemes, or panicles. Calyx 
4- or 5-fid, the lobes triangular, erect or recurved, usually keeled on the 
inside. Petals 4 or 5, rarely none, hooded or involute, usually shorter than 
the calyx-lobes, inserted on the throat of the calyx. Stamens 4 or 5, 
inserted with the petals and opposite them. Disk fleshy, filling the calyx- 
tube or thin and lining it, entire or lobed. Ovary sessile, free or im- 
mersed in the disk, 2- to 4-celled. Fruit a capsule or a dry or fleshy 
drupe, 1- to 4-celled, free or surrounded at the base by the calyx-tube. ’ 
Genera 51, species nearly 500, of wide temperate and tropical distribu- 
tion, 8 genera and 20 species in the Philippines. 
1. Trees or shrubs; fruit an indehiscent dry or fleshy drupe, the stone 1- to 
pot OE, Di ie ae LEER ci | 281s ns pen woes oo ce! EE re eS 1. Zizyphus 
1. Scandent shrubs; fruit a dehiscent, 3-celled, 3-seeded capsule. 
2. Fruit inferior, crowned by the calyx, 3-angled or 3-winged; flowers 
fascicled, on elongated simple or paniculate spikes or racemes. 
2. Gouania 
2. Fruit superior, globose; flowers in short axillary cymes.... 3. Colubrina 
1. ZIZYPHUS Adanson 
Trees or shrubs, sometimes with pendulous branches, or scandent, fre- 
quently armed with stout, large or small spines. Leaves somewhat 2- 
