BALSAMINE/E. 59 



Pulneys : Glen falls near Kodaikanal. Not collected on the 

 Nilgiris and recorded from nowhere else in India, only Ceylon. 



The plant flowers apparently its first season, and is to be found there- 

 fore as an annual, with slender but woody forked stems and no rootstock. 

 Ceylon specimens (the type in F.B.I.) have thick rootstock ; and in F.B.I, 

 this Pulney plant is separated, as var. pulneyense, because of this difference 

 of habit. It is also a stronger growing plant than the Kandy one. Our 

 plant is however to be found also with perennial rootstock and woody stem ; 

 so the distinction may not hold good. 



BALSAMINE/E. 



IMPATIENS. F.B.I. 32 VIII. 



Balsam. 

 The Balsams are easily recognised, but the flower 

 may need some explanation. There are three sepals, 

 only very occasionally five, and of these two are green 

 and very small, while one is coloured like the petals and 

 almost indistinguishable from them. This large sepal is 

 usually prolonged downwards as a sac or spur, and fits 

 closely in front and underneath, with the spur pointing 

 forwards. There are apparently also only three petals ; 

 one, on exactly the opposite side of the flower to the 

 spurred sepal, is outside the others in bud and is usually 

 called the standard; each of the other two has a slit 

 dividing it into two lobes, and is in reality made up of 

 two petals more or less fused together. These wings, 

 as they are usually called, hang down or project horizon- 

 tally in front over the lip of the spurred sepal, and in 

 some species, the " Orchid Balsams " look very like the 

 labellum of an orchid. In the centre of the flower are 

 five stamens packed tightly round the ovary, their 

 anthers joined together and showing their nature only in 

 the five narrow slits from which pollen oozes out. The 

 ovary has five cells with very thin partition walls and a 

 number of ovules. In fmit it becomes a long and narrow, 

 or a comparatively short and fat, barrel-shaped pod, the 

 sides of which have a tendency to curl up inwards, and 



