XLIX. TKOP.ZEOLE^. 311 



enveloping them ; posterior petals smaller, enveloping the 2 lateral. STAMENS 5, 

 inserted on the receptacle, as long as the ovary, and covering it like an opercnlum ; 

 filaments short, flattened, cohering at the top ; anthers introrse, 2-celled, connivent or 

 coherent. OVARY free, sessile, cylindric-oblong, or obtusely angled, 5-celled ; stigma 

 sessile, entire or 5-partite; ovules numerous in each cell (Impatiens), or 2-3 (Hydro- 

 cera], 1-seriate, pendulous, anatropous. FRUIT a loculicidal 5-valved capsule, 

 elastically coiling inwards from the top downwards, or outwards from the bottom 

 upwards ; sometimes an indehiscent 5-celled drupe with a bony 5-lobed endocarp. 

 SEEDS pendulous, slightly compressed ; testa membranous, dotted or tubercular, 

 glabrous or velvety. EMBRYO exalbuminous, straight; cotyledons plano-convex, 

 fleshy ; radicle very short, superior. 



GENEBA. 

 *Impatiens. Hydrocera. 



Bahamineo) are closely allied to Geraniuceee (see that family J ). They are equally near Oxalidea in 

 hypopetalism, 5-celled ovary with pendulous anatropous ovules, usually loculicidal fruit, and axillary 

 flowers ; but Oxalidece differ in their regular diplostemonous flower, free styles, the valves of the capsule 

 remaiuing attached to the placentiferous column, 2 the usually arillate albuminous seed, and the compound 

 leaves. Linece have some analogies with Balsaminefe, founded on the 5-phyllous calyx, the polypetaloua 

 hypogyuous isostemonous corolla with pendulous anatropous ovules, the capsular fruit, and the seed with 

 little or no albumen ; but they are separated by their regular flower, contorted corolla, long styles, ter- 

 minal inflorescence, and entire leaves. The affinity with Tropceolecc is more obvious : irregular coloured 

 calyx with one sepal prolonged into a spur, several-celled ovary, pendulous anatropous ovules, capsular 

 fruit, exalbuminous straight embryo, axillary flowers, and herbaceous stem; but in Tropccolea the calyx 

 is persistent, and it is the posterior sepal which is prolonged into a spur, the corolla is anisostemonous, 

 the ovary has three 1-ovuled cells, and the fruit divides into three indehiscent lobes. 



BahaminecB mostly grow in the mountainous regions of India and Africa ; a few inhabit South Africa, 

 North America, Europe, and Central Asia. The European is the Impaiiens Noli-mc-tanyere, or Touch- 

 me-not, so called from the elasticity of its capsule?, which open from below upwards, and scatter their seeds 

 at the slightest touch : it was formerly classed among diuretic medicines. I. Balsamina is an East Indian 

 annual, everywhere cultivated on account of the abundance and variety of the colours of its flowers, which 

 have been so doubled by florists as to have become almost regular. /. parviflora is almost naturalized 

 in shady places near Paris. Hydrocera belongs to the marshes of tropical Asia. 



XLIX. 



, Jussieu. BALSAMINACEARUM subordo, Lindl.) 



FLOWERS irregular. SEPALS unequal, the posterior spurred. PETALS perigynous, 

 unequal, equal and alternate with the sepals, or fewer. STAMENS 8, hypogynous. OVARY 

 free, of three l-ovuled cells. SEEDS exalbuminous. EMBRYO straight, with thick cotyle- 

 dons. STEM herbaceous. LEAVES alternate. 



1 A glance at the seven tribes of Geraniacea proposed Troprtolea ate so intermixed that it appears impossible 



in the ' Genera Plantarum,' and here introduced under to keep these groups distinct as orders. ED. 



thai order (p. 308), will show how the characters used * Not in Biophytum. ED. 

 to separate Geraniacca, Oxalidea, Salsamincee, and 



