GERANIAGE^. 



19 



Impatiem N'oU-tatigeye. 



matiferous apex, diyided into five more or less distinct lobes. In the 

 inner angle of each, cell is an indefinite number of descendent anatro- 

 pous ovules, "with superior and exterior micropyle ^- The fruit is 

 a loculicidal capsule, the five elongated panels separating from the axis 

 and coiling elastically in a variable manner 

 (fig 48-49) to cast the seeds, formed 

 of coats containing a large fieshy exal- 

 buminous embryo, with plano-convex coty- 

 ledons. In /. natans^ a succulent species 

 from the marshes of central Asia, dis- 

 tinguished under the generic name of 

 Hydrocera^ the fruit is more or less fleshy 

 and indehiscent ; and in that way this 

 species is to the Balsams what Chymocarpus 

 is to the Nasturtiums proper (page 16). 

 Thus constituted this genus contains about 

 a hundred and thirty species,* mostly natives 

 of the warmest regions of the Old World; 

 we meet, however, with a couple in North America and two or 

 three in Northern Europe and Asia. They are herbs, sometimes 

 suflBnitescent, glabrous or covered with hairs, with alternate or oppo- 

 site leaves, exstipulate, with a petiole often glandular at the base. 

 The flowers are solitary or in cymes in the axil of the leaves or of the 

 bracts which sometimes replace them at the summits of the branches. 

 They are accompanied by two lateral bractlets, and their weight 

 often draws them to the summit of the bent down peduncle, while 

 their spur at first posterior may become anterior or lateral. 



Fig. 49. Dehiscent fruit. 



1. Balsamina, 1. Nolitangere." (H. Mohl. in 

 Ann. So. Nat. ser. 2, iii. 342.) 



1 With, double coat. 



2 W. Spec. i. 1175.— DC. Frodi: i. 687, n. 1. 



'< Bl. Bijdr. 241 ; in Ann. So. Nat. b6i 2, ii. 

 90.— Endi. Gen. n. 6061.— B. H. Geit. 278, n. 

 20. 



* Hook. Mof. Fl. t. 137, 141, 146.— Eeiohb. 

 Ic. Fl. Germ. v. 1. 198 i. — ^Wight et Akn . Frodi: 

 i. 135, 140 {Sydrocera). — Ledeb. Icon. t. 89. 

 Wall. PI. As. Mar. t. 19, 193, 194.— Wight 



Icon. t. 723, 741, 751, 986-970 his, 1049, 1050, 

 1602, 1603. — Hook. f. et Thomb. in Journ. Linn. 

 Soe. iv. 106, 156 {Sydrocra). — Harv. et Sond. 

 Fl. Cay. i. 312.— Olit. Fl. Trop. Afr. i. 298.— 

 Boiss. Fl. Or. i. 367.— Benth. Fl. Songk. 55. 

 — A. GuAY Man. ed. 5, 108. — Chapm. FL S. 

 Unit. St. 65.— C. Gay, Fl. CHI: i. 466.— Gren. 

 et GoDB. Fl. de Fr. i. Z25.—Bot. Mag. t. 4404, 

 4615, 4623, 4631, 4662, 4704, 4739, etc.— Walp. 

 Bep. i. 467, 476 {Mydrocera) ; ii. 821 ; v. 382 ; 

 Ann. ; i. 143 ; ii. 239 iv. 398 ; vii. 503. 



