GEEANIACE^. 



19 



Inipatiens ^oli-tangere. 



matiferoiis apex, divided into five more or less distinct lobes. In the 

 inner angle of each cell is an indefinite number of descendent anatro- 

 pous ovules, mth superior and exterior micropj'le ^. The fruit is 

 a locuUcidal capsule, the five elongated panels separating fi'omthe axis 

 and coiling elastically in a variable manner 

 (fig 48-49) to cast the seeds, formed 

 of coats containing a large fleshy exal- 

 buminous embryo, with plano-convex coty- 

 ledons. In /. nutans f a succulent species 

 from the marshes of central Asia, dis- 

 tingiiished under the generic name of 

 Hljdroceru^ the fruit is more or less fleshy 

 and indehiscent; and in that way this 

 species is to the Balsams what Chi/mocar]^>us 

 is to the Nastui'tiums proper (page 16). 

 Thus constituted this genus contains about 

 a hundred and thii-ty species,* mostly natives 

 of the warmest regions of the Old World; 

 we meet, however, with a couple in North America and two or 

 thi'ce in Northern Eiirope and Asia. They are herbs, sometimes 

 suffrutesccnt, glabrous or covered with hairs, with alternate or oppo- 

 site leaves, oxstipulate, with a petiole often glandular at the base. 

 The flowers arc solitary or in cymes in the axil of the leaves or of the 

 bracts which sometimes replace them at the summits of the branches. 

 They are accompanied by two lateral bractlets, and theii- weight 

 often (h-aws them to the summit of the bent down peduncle, while 

 their spiu- at first posterior may become anterior or lateral. 



Fig. 49. Dehiscent fruit. 



1. Bahamiiia, 1. Nulitaiigere." (II. MoHL. in 

 Ami. Sc. Nat. ser. 2, iii. 342.) 



1 With double coat. 



« W. SiHC. i. 117.3.— DC. rroilr. i. G87, n. 1. 



•* Bl. Bijdr. 241 ; in Ann. Sc. Nat. sir: 2, ii. 

 90.— Endi. Gcii. n. 6061.— B. H. Ocn. 278, n. 

 20. 



* Hook. Exot. Fl. t. 137, 141, 146.— Reicius. 

 Ic. Fl. Germ. v. 1. 198 4. — Wight ct A«x. rrodr. 

 i. 135, 140 {Jlijdrocera). — Ledeb. Jcon. t. 89. 

 Wall. PI. As. liar. t. 19, 193, 194.— Wight 



/<■«//. t. 723, 741, 751, 93C-070 lis, 1049, 10.50, 

 1602, 1603. — Hook. f. et Thoms. in Jourii. Linn. 

 S'ic. iv. 106, 1.36 {Ili/droe-ra). — Hakv. ct Soxu. 

 Fl. Cay. i. 312.— Oliv. Fl. Trap. Afr. i. 298.— 

 Boiss. Fl. Or. i. 367.— Benth. Fl. Hongk. 5-3. 

 — A. Ghay Man. ed. j, 108.— Chai-m. Fl. S. 

 Unit. St. 65.— C. Gay, Fl. Cl.il. i. 466.— Guen". 

 et GoDii. Fl. rle F: i. 325.— /A/C JIag. t. 4404, 

 461.3,4623, 4631, 4662,4704, 4739, etc.— AVali'. 

 litp. i. 467, 476 (Hgdrocera) ; ii. 821 ; v. 382; 

 Am. ; i. 143 ; ii. 239 iv. 398 ; vii. 503. 



