RHAMNACEAE 307 



feet, rather large and showy, on axillary or terminal, 1- to several-flowered 

 peduncles. Sepals 3, imbricate, the posterior one large, petaloid, produced 

 into a hollow sack or spur, the 2 anterior ones small, green. Petals 3 or 

 6, the lateral ones 2-lobed. Stamens 5; filaments short, broad; anthers 

 cohering. Disk none. Ovary oblong, 5-celled; stigma sessile, 5-toothed; 

 ovules many. Fruit a loculicidal capsule, valves springing elastically 

 away from the axis. Seeds smooth or tubercled, small. 



A single genus of over 350 species, very numerous in the mountains of 

 tropical Asia and Africa, few in temperate Europe, North America, etc., 

 about 26 species known from the Philippines, a single introduced one in 

 our area. 



1. IMPATIENS Linnaeus 



Characters of the Family. (Latin "impatient" because of the elastically 

 dehiscent capsules.) 



1. I. BALSAMINA L. Camantigui (Tag.); Balsamina (Sp.); Balsam. 



An erect, succulent, branched herb 1 m high or less. Leaves glabrous 

 or somewhat pubescent, 3 to 5 cm long, narrowly lanceolate, or oblanceolate, 

 acuminate, deeply serrate, alternate; petioles glandular. Flowers axillary, 

 showy, 2 to 3 cm long, usually pink, but forms with white, red, purple, and 

 "variegated petals found in cultivation, the spur long, slender. Fruit 

 pubescent. (Fl. Filip. pi. iH.) 



A common and variable garden plant, cultivated for ornamental purposes, 

 fl. more or less all the year, extensively cultivated in the Philippines, oc- 

 casionally subspontaneous. A native of British India, now found in cultiva- 

 tion in most warm and tropical, countries. 



81. RHAMNACEAE (Buckthorn or Ligaa Family) 



Erect trees or shrubs or scandent shrubs (in Gowinia, tendril-bearing), 

 often spiny. Leaves simple, alternate, mostly 3- to 6-nerved, the stipules 

 small, often transformed into prickles. Flowers perfect or polygamous, 

 small, in axillary or terminal cymes, fascicles, racemes, or panicles. Calyx 

 4- or 6-fid, the lobes triangular, erect or recurved, usually keeled on the 

 inside. Petals 4 or 5, rarely none, hooded or involute, usually shorter than 

 the calyx-lobes, inserted on the throat of the calyx. Stamens 4 or 5, 

 inserted with the petals and opposite them. Disk fleshy, filling the calyx- 

 tube or thin and lining it, entire or lobfed. Ovary sessile, free or im- 

 mersed in the disk, 2- to 4-celled. Fruit a capsule or a dry or fleshy 

 drupe, 1- to 4-celled, free or surrounded at the base by the calyx-tube. 



Genera 61, species 'nearly 500, of wide temperate and tropical distribu- 

 tion, 8 genera^ and 20 species in the Philippines. 



1. Trees or shrubs; fruit an indehiscent dry or fleshy drupe, the stone 1- to 



4-celled •>■ !• Zizyphua 



1. Scandent shrubs; fruit a dehiscent, 3-celled, 3-seeded capsule. 

 2. Fruit inferior, crowned by the calyx, 3-angled or 3-winged; flowers 

 fascicled, on elongated simple or paniculate spikes or racemes. 



2. Gouania 

 2. Fruit superior, globose; flowers in short axillary cymes.... 8. Colubrina 



1. ZIZYPHUS Adanson 



Trees or shrubs, sometimes with pendulous branches, or scandent, fre- 

 quently armed with stout, large or small' spines. Leaves somewhat 2- 



