BALSAMINACEiE. 133 



Plate 152, 153. 



IMPATIENS, L. 



Sepalum posticum maximum saccato-calcaratum. Petala 

 4 per paria connata, sen 2 inaequaliter bipartita. Capsula 

 carnoso-cartilaginea ; valvis a placenta centrali persistente 

 elastice dissilientibus. 



Impatiens, Linn. Gen. 1008. Lam. 111. t. 725. Schkuhr, Handb. t. 270. 



Wight & Am. Prodr. Ind. Or. 1. p. 135. Endl. Gen. 60G0. 

 Balsamina, Tourn. Inst. p. 418. t. 235. Juss. Gen. p. 270. Gasrtn. Fr. 



2. p. 151. t. 113. 

 Balsamina «&. Impatiens, Rivin. Tetrap. Irreg. 4. p. 146. DC. Prodr. 1. 



p. 685. 



Balsam. Toucli-me-not. Jewel-weed. 



Calyx petaloid, deciduous, apparently of four, but really 

 of five SEPALS, the two anterior being united into one, very 

 irregular ; the two lateral sepals exterior and at first valvate 

 in aestivation, or soon incumbent, the others smaller than 

 they, often minute ; the posterior one (nectary of Linnaeus) 

 very large, saccate and usually spurred at the base, often re- 

 sembling the cornucopias in shape, its margins incumbent 

 upon the anterior in aestivation ; the two anterior (and inner- 

 most in asstivation) united into one, which is notched at the 

 apex, orbicular and concave or gibbous. Petals hypogynous, 

 lateral, deciduous, two in number and alternating with the 

 two lateral and the posterior sepals, deeply and unequally 

 two-cleft or two-parted, usually considered to represent four 

 petals (the two superior and the two lateral) united in pairs, 

 the anterior petal wanting ; the two lateral lobes or petals 

 smaller than the others and exterior, so as to cover their 

 edges in aestivation. Stamens 5, hypogynous, alternate with 

 the cells of the ovary, short : filaments broad and thickish, 

 connivent, somewhat coherent, furnished with a membrana- 



