Ord. BALSAMINACE^. 



Herbas simplicifoliae exstipulatas, caule succo aqneo turgi- 

 do : dicotyledoneae, hypogynas, pentandras, irregulares ; peri- 

 anthio colorato asymmetrico postice saccato ; staminibus 

 superne connato-cohaerentibns ; ovario 5-loculari, loculis 2- 

 pluriovulatis ; fructu ssepius capsular! elastice dissilientibus ; 

 seminibus exalbuminosis anatropis ; embryone recto, cotyle- 

 donibus magnis crassis. 



Balsamine^, a. Rich, in Diet. Hist. Nat. 2. p. 173. DC. Prodr. 1. p. 



685. Bartl. Ord. Nat. p. 422. Kunth in RIem. Soc. Hist. Nat. 



Par. 3. p. 384, & Fl. Berol. 1. p. 82. Roper, Flor. Bals. (1830), 



& in Linnaja, 9. p. 119. Wiglit & Arn. Prodr. Ind. Or. 1. p. 



134. Arn. in Linnsea, 9. p. 112. Wight, III. Ind. Bot. p. 156. 



t. 61. Bernh. in Linnaea, 12. p. 669. Endl. Gen. p. 1173. 

 Balsaminaceje, Lindl. Introd. Nat. Syst. ed. 2. p. 138, & Veg. Kingd. 



p. 490. 



The Balsam or Jewel-Weed Family comprises only the large genus 

 Impatiens, Linn., with Hydrocera, a small East Indian genus, which has 

 more symmetrical flowers and a drupaceous fruit. 



Its nearest affinities are with the OxalidacejB and Linacesn, especially the 

 former, from which it differs most strikingly by its remarkably irregular and 

 strictly pentandrous flowers. A character in which Impatiens accords wilii 

 most Zygophyllaceae has apparently been overlooked or misunderstood, 

 namely, the internal membranaceous appendages of the filaments. These 

 five subulate appendages are connivent and more or less coherent over the 

 summit of the pistil. In our native species, they cover the stigma so close- 

 ly as entirely to prevent the access of the pollen in the greater part of the 

 fully developed flowers, which conse(iucntly fall away unfertilized ; but some- 

 times the growing ovary pushes the stigma through the apex of this cap so 

 as to secure its fertilization. Meanwhile the fruit is chiefly produced from 

 a succession of small flower-buds, in which apparently no such appendages 

 are interposed between the anthers and the stigma, and in which- the 

 ovary is fertilized at a very early period, while the floral envelopes are yet 

 minute and almost regular. Tlie gravid ovaiy as it eidarges detaches the 



