404 



BALSAMINACEAE. 



[Voi II. 



2. Impatiens aurea Muhl. Pale 

 Touch-me-not. (Fig. 2389.) 



Impatiens aurea Muhl. Cat. 26. 1813. 

 Impatiens pallida Nutt. Gen. x: 146. 1818. 



Similar to the preceding species, but larger 

 and stouter. Flowers pale yellow, sparingly 

 dotted with reddish-brown, or sometimes dot- 

 less, I2 // -I5 // long ; saccate sepal dilated- 

 conic, about as broad as long, abruptly con- 

 tracted into a short scarcely incurved notched 

 spur, less than one-third its length; bracts of 

 the pedicels lanceolate to ovate, acute. 



In similar situations, most abundant north- 

 ward. Quebec to Oregon, south to Georgia and 

 Kansas. July-Sept. This and the preceding 

 also called Snapweed. 



Family 71. RHAMNACEAE Dumort. Fl. Belg. 102. 1827. 

 BUCKTHORN FAMILY. 



Erect or climbing shrubs, or small trees, often thorny. Leaves simple, stip- 

 ulate, mainly alternate, often 3~5-nerved. Stipules small, deciduous. Inflor- 

 escence commonly of axillary or terminal cymes or panicles. Flowers small, 

 regular, perfect or polygamous. Calyx-tube obconic or cylindric, the limb 4-5- 

 toothed. Petals 4-5, inserted on the calyx, or none. Stamens 4-5, inserted 

 with the petals and opposite them; anthers short, versatile. Disk fleshy. 

 Ovary sessile, free from or immersed in the disk, 2-5- (often 3-) celled; ovules i 

 in each cavity, anatropous. Fruit a drupe or capsule, often 3-celled. Seeds 

 solitary in the cavities, erect; endosperm fleshy, rarely none ; embryo large; 

 cotyledons flat. 



About 45 genera and 575 species, natives of temperate and warm regions. 

 Ovary free from the disk; fruit a drupe. 



Petals sessile, entire; stone of the drupe 2-celled. i. Berchemia. 



Petals short-clawed or none; stones of the drupe 7-4. 2. Rhamnus. 



Ovary adnate to the disk at its base; fruit dry. 3. Ceanothus. 



i. BERCHEMIA Neck. Elem. 2: 122. 1790. 



Climbing or erect shrubs, with alternate petioled ovate or oblong coriaceous pinnately- 

 vcined leaves, and small greenish-white flowers in axillary or terminal clusters, or rarely 

 solitary. Calyx-tube hemispheric, the limb 5-toothed. Petals 5, sessile, concave or cucul- 

 late. Stamens 5; filaments filiform. Disk filling the calyx-tube, covering but not united 

 with the ovary. Drupe oval, obtuse, compressed, its flesh thin and coriaceous, its stone 

 2 celled. Seeds linear-oblong; cotyledons thin. [Name unexplained.] 



About 10 species, the following in southeastern North America, the others in Asia and tropical 

 Africa. 



i. Berchemia scandens (Hill.) Trel. 

 Supple-Jack. (Fig. 2390.) 



ft. scandens Hill, Hort. Kew. 453. pi. 20. 1768. 

 Berchemia volubilis DC. Prodr. a: 22. 1825. 

 Berchemia scandens Trel. Trans. St. Louis Acad. 



5: 364. 1889. 



A glabrous high-climbing shrub, with slen- 

 der tough terete branches. Leaves ovate or 

 ovate-oblong, i / -2 / long, %'-i' wide, acute, 

 acuminate, or obtuse and cuspidate at the apex, 

 obtuse or somewhat truncate at the base, dark 

 green above, paler beneath, their margins un- 

 dulate and sometimes slightly revolute; veins 

 8-12 pairs; petioles slender, 2 // ~5 // long; flow- 

 ers about i l /t ff broad, mainly in small terminal 

 panicles; petals acute; style short; drupe 3"- 

 4" long, equalling or shorter than its slender 

 pedicel, its stone crustaceous. 



In low woods, Virginia to Florida, Kentucky, 

 Missouri and Texas. March-June. 



