VOL. II. ] 



SOAPBERRY FAMILY. 



403 



2. CARDIOSPERMUM L. Sp. PI. 366. 1753. 



Climbing and extensively branching herbaceous vines, with alternate bipinnate or decom- 

 pound leaves, and small axillary tendril-bearing corymbs of slightly irregular polygamo- 

 dioecious flowers. Tendrils 2 to each corymb, opposite. Pedicels jointed. Sepals 4, the 2 

 exterior smaller. Petals 4, 2 larger and 2 smaller. Disk i-sided, undulate. Stamens 8; 

 filaments unequal. Ovary 3-celled; style short, 3-cleft; ovules i in each cavity. Capsule 

 inflated, 3-lobed. Seeds arilled at the base; cotyledons 

 conduplicate. [Greek, heart-seed.] 



About 15 species, of warm and temperate regions. 



i. Cardiospermum Halicacabum I,. Bal- 

 loon Vine. Heart-seed. (Fig. 2387.) 



Cardiospermum Halicacabum L,. Sp. PI. 366. 1753. 



Slender, glabrous or slightly pubescent, climbing, 

 2-6 long. Leaves petioled, biternate or bipinnate, 

 2 / -4 / long; segments stalked, ovate or oblong, acute or 

 acuminate, sharply serrate ; peduncles commonly 

 longer than the leaves, bearing a few-flowered corymb 

 at the summit and 2 coiled tendrils just beneath; flow- 

 ers white, 3 // -4 // broad; capsule much inflated, about 

 i / long, globose-pyriform ; seeds globose, nearly black. 



In waste places, New Brunswick, N. J., and in ballast 

 about the sea-ports; common in cultivation, and occasion- 

 ally escaping from gardens. Native of tropical America, 

 and widely diffused as a weed in the warmer parts of the 

 Old World. Called also Heart-pea. Summer. 



Family 70. BALSAMINACEAE Lindl. Nat. Syst. Ed. 2, 138. 1836. 



JEWEI-WEED FAMILY. 



Succulent herbs, with alternate thin simple dentate petioled leaves, and 

 showy very irregular axillary somewhat clustered flowers. Sepals 3, the 2 lat- 

 eral ones small, green, nerved, the posterior one large, petaloid, saccate, spurred. 

 Petals 5, or 3 with 2 of them 2-cleft into dissimilar lobes. Stamens 5, short; fila- 

 ments appendaged by scales on their inner side and more or less united; anthers 

 coherent or connivent. Ovary oblong, 5-celled ; style very short, or none ; 

 stigma 5-toothed or 5-lobed; ovules several in each cell. Fruit in the following 

 genus an oblong or linear capsule, elastically dehiscent into 5 spirally coiled 

 valves, expelling the oblong ridged seeds. Endosperm none; embryo nearly 

 straight; cotyledons flat. Later flowers small, cleistogamous, apetalous. 



About 220 species, mostly natives of tropical Asia. The family consists of the following genus 

 and the monotypic Asiatic Hydrocera, differing from Impatiens in its indehiscent 4-5-seeded berry. 



i. IMPATIENS L. Sp. PI. 937. 1753. 



Characters of family, as given above. [Name in allusion to the elastically bursting pods.] 

 Flowers orange -yellow, mottled; spur incurved. i. /. biflora. 



Flowers pale yellow; spur short, spreading. 2. /. aurea. 



i. Impatiens bifldra Walt. Spotted Touch-me-not. Silver-leaf. (Fig. 2388.) 



Impaliens biflora Walt. Fl. Car. 219. 1788. 

 Impatien s fulva Nutt. Gen. i: 146. 1818. 



Annual, glabrous, 2-5 high, branched, pur- 

 plish. Leaves thin, ovate or elliptic, pale and 

 glaucous beneath, lyz'-sW long, generally ob- 

 tuse, coarsely toothed, the teeth commonly mu- 

 cronate; petioles slender, ^ / -4 / long; peduncles 

 axillary, %'-!%' long. 2-4-flowered ; pedicels 

 pendent, slender, bracted above the middle; 

 bracts linear; flowers horizontal, orange-yellow, 

 mottled with reddish-brown (rarely nearly white 

 and not mottled), 9 // -i2 // long; saccate sepal 

 conic, longer than broad, contracted into a 

 slender incurved spur of one- half its length, 

 which is 2-toothed at the apex. 



In moist grounds, Nova Scotia to Oregon and Al- 

 aska, south to Florida and Missouri. Spurs are oc- 

 casionally developed on the 2 small exterior sepals, 

 and spurless flowers have been observed. This and 

 the next called Balsam, Jewel-weed. July-Oct. 



