ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW. 
BULLETIN 
OF 
| MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION. 
No. 1.] (1909. 
I.-ON SOME SPECIES OF IMPATIENS FROM INDO- 
CHINA AND THE MALAYAN PENINSULA. 
J. D. Hooker. 
When examining the contents of a rich collection of Chinese 
Balsamineae, liberally loaned to me by the authorities of the -Paris 
Museum of Natural History for the purpose of collating the species 
with those in the Kew Herbarium, I found amongst them a con- 
siderable number that had been collected in the French possessions 
of Indo-China. These were of special interest as being the only 
ones known to me as natives of that country.* There were about 
16 of them, and they appeared to me to differ so greatly from those 
of China proper, not only specifically but in sectional and in other 
characters as to suggest Indo-China being, in respect of Balsamineae, 
a different phyto-geographical area from that to the north of it. 
Further, a study of the Balsamineae of the Malayan Archipelago 
from Sumatra eastwards to Borneo, Celebes, the Moluccas, New 
Guinea, and the Philippines, proved that these did not harmonise 
with those of Indo-China. Two more Indo-Chinese have subse- 
quently been received from the Herbarium of the Fribourg 
Museum, making 18 species to be discussed here. 
To determine the relationship of the Indo-Chinese and Malayan 
Peninsula species of Impatiens, it is necessary to take into con- 
sideration those of the adjacent areas of China, Burma (including 
Assam), and the Malayan Archipelago. Siam should be included 
were its Balsams known, but only six species have been collected in 
that kingdom (by Dr. C. C. Hosseus); one of them is also a native 
of Yunnan, and the others are of Burmese type. 
The Balsams of the Himalaya differ so greatly from those of 
other Indian areas that their inclusion would be valueless. Except 
* Loureiro’s “ Flora Cochinchinensis,” published in 1790, when probably the 
term Cochin-China was not tha w understood, contains five species of 
Impatiens, all apparently either Canton or garden plants Two of these 
J. Balsamina, L., and J. cornuta, L., are forms of one. The others are too incom- 
pletely described for identification. None now exist in the British Museum, 
where Loureiro’s herbarium is deposited. 
(12002—6a.) Wet. 35—183. 1375. 2/09. D&S, 
