IMPATIENS FULVA, 
SPOTTED TCUCH-ME-NOT, OR SNAP-WEED. 43 
The genus has been the victim of uncertainties in some of its 
relationships, and the species have fared no better. Linnzus, 
who arranged plants on his sexual system, classed /wpatiens as a 
syngenesious plant! In this class were also included what we 
now call composites. Nuttall, who also arranged his plants on 
the sexual system, places it in the class Pentandria. Nor has it 
been more settled under the natural system of more modern 
botanists. Wood, from whom we quote, gives it to the order 
Balsaminacee. But many modern botanists do not regard this 
as an independent order, and the student from this point of view 
would have to search for our plant among the Geranzacce. 
A peculiar feature of this and allied species of /mpatiens is 
that the later flowers are often cleistogenous; that is to say, 
while the earlier flowers have petals and are complete in all their 
parts, as in our plate, the later ones have no petals, or anything 
that would be popularly called a flower, and yield barely pollen 
enough to fertilize the ovary and produce seed. Fertilization 
is effected before the bud opens, and the first knowledge ‘the 
observer has of the existence of any flowering operation is by 
the growing seed vessel pushing from the bud. In England, 
where close observations on this species have been made by Mr. 
A. W. Bennet, these cleistogenenic flowers have been found in 
the proportion of twenty to one of the petal bearing, or as they 
are called; “perfect” ones. In the vicinity of the writer’s home 
the proportion is generally about one-half. In Europe the per- 
fect flowers seem rarely to produce seeds. But here they bear 
freely, and plants may be seen covered with seed vessels before 
any cleistogene flowers appear. The subject is one of great 
interest, and will prove an inviting field for the student fond of 
original research. 
There are many facts worth noting in the life-history of the 
Impatiens fulva. In the “ Bulletin of the Torrey Bot. Club” for 
1872, it is noted that the inhabitants of Green county, New York, 
call it “ Silver leaf”’ because when placed under water the leaf 
glistens like silver, and does not get wet. In the volume for 
