440 



LINACEAE, 



Vol. II. 



Millegrana Radiola (L.) Druce (Radiola Linoides Roth), the All-seed of Europe, has been 

 found on Cape Breton. The genus differs from Linum and CalhartoHnum in its 4-parted flowers. 



Family 64. BALSAMINACEAE Lindl. Nat. Syst. Ed. 2, 138. 1836. 



Jewel-weed Family. 



Succulent herbs, with akernate thin, simple dentate petioled leaves and showy 

 very irregular axillary somewhat clustered flowers. Sepals 3, the 2 lateral ones 

 small, green, nerved, the posterior one large, petaloid, saccate, spurred. Petals 5, 

 or 3 with 2 of them 2-cleft into dissimilar lobes. Stamens 5, short; filaments 

 appendaged by scales on their inner side and more or less united ; anthers coherent 

 or connivent. Ovary oblong, 5-celled ; style very short, or none ; stigma 5-toothed 

 or 5-lobed ; ovules several in each cell. Fruit in the following genus an oblong or 

 linear capsule, elastically dehiscent into 5 spirally coiled valves, expelling the 

 oblong ridged seeds. Endosperm none ; embryo nearly straight ; cotyledons flat. 

 Later flowers small, cleistogamous, apetalous. 



About 220 species, mostly natives of tropical Asia. The family consists of the following genus 

 and the raonotypic Asiatic Hydrocera, differing from Impatiens in its indehiscent 4-5-seeded berry. 

 In our first edition it was placed at the end of the order Sapindales, but is here grouped in the 

 Geraniales. 



I. IMPATIENS [Rivin.] L. Sp. PL 937. 1753. 



Characters of the family, as given above. [Name in allusion to the elastically bursting pods.] 



Besides the following species, 3 others occur in Western North America and two in Central 

 America. Type species : Impatiens Noli-fangcrc L., an Old World plant with light yellow flowers, 

 recorded as found in Ontario. 



Flowers orange-yellow, mottled ; spur incurved. 

 Flowers pale yellow ; spur short, spreading. 



1. I. bi flora. 



2. I. pallida. 



I. Impatiens biflora Walt. 



Impatiens biflora Walt. Fl. Car. 219. 



Spotted or Wild Touch-me-not. Siher-leaf. 

 Fig. 2685. 



Impatiens fulva Nutt. Gen. i ; 146. 1818. 



.Annual, glabrous, 2°-5° high, branched, pur- 

 plish. Leaves thin, ovate or elliptic, pale and 

 glaucous beneath, \¥-2V long, generally obtuse, 

 coarsely toothed, the teeth commonly mucronate; 

 petioles slender, ^'-4' long; peduncles axillary, 

 Y-iV long, 2-4-flowered; pedicels pendent, slen- 

 der, bracted above the middle ; bracts linear ; 

 flowers horizontal, orange-yellow, mottled with 

 reddish-brown (rarely nearly white and not mot- 

 tled), 9"-i2" long; saccate sepal conic, longer 

 than broad, contracted into a slender incurved 

 spur of one-half its length, which is 2-toothed at 

 the apex. 



^ In moist grounds, Newfoundland to Saskatchewan, Florida and Nebraska. Spurs are occa- 

 sionally developed on the 2 small exterior sepals, and spurless flowers have been observed. This 

 and the next called balsam, jewel-weed. Speckled jewels. Silver-, slipper- or snap-weed. Ear- 

 ]e\vel. Ladies -slipper, pocket- or ear-drop. Wild or brook-celandine. Solentine. Snap-dragon. 

 Shining-grass. Cowslip. Weather-cock. Kicking-colt or -horses. Wild balsam. July-Oct. 



Impatiens Nortonii Rydb., of western Missouri and Kansas, differs from /. biflora in the 

 larger and relatively longer and narrower saccate sepal, which tapers gradually into the shorter 

 spur. 



Impatiens Balsamina L., with purple or white flowers, much cultivated has been found in 

 waste grounds in Pennsylvania. It is native of southern Asia. 



