46 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS. 



Impatiens noli me tangere, the yellow touch-me-not, found 

 in Northern England and Wales, but not in Scotland or 

 Ireland; and the coppery touch-me-not (7. fvlva), to be 

 found only in a few places near rivers in the county of 

 Surrey. The giant balsam, rising to the height of a man, 

 with coarse but somewhat noble herbage and handsome 

 purple or rosy flowers, is Impatiens g land ulif era, so called 

 because of the glands at the base of the serratures ; it is a 

 native of Northern India. 



It is easy to demonstrate the appropriateness of the 

 familiar name of this plant, and any kind of balsam will 

 serve the purpose. When the seed-pod is ripe, a touch 

 causes it to explode and scatter the seed far and wide. 

 Nature has various ways of distributing the seeds of 

 plants : some are furnished with wings, and. fly to new 

 pastures ; some attach themselves to the animals that 

 browse amongst them, while others are swallowed with 

 herbage as food, but resist the action of the digestive 

 organs. There are many that are discharged by the plants 

 into space, such as those of the violet, the squirting 

 cucumber, and the balsam. 



It is common to see in half-neglected gardens great 

 masses of the three balsams mentioned above, the conse- 

 quence of the freedom with which the plants scatter their 

 seeds from year to year. It often happens that the yellow 

 and the purple get mixed together, and a difficulty arises 

 as to their identification. It may be useful, therefore, to 

 the reader if we briefly describe each so far as regards 

 their distinctive characters. 



The yellow balsam grows one to two feet high; the 

 stems are swollen at the nodes, the leaves are pale o-reen 

 toothed, flaccid; the perfect flowers grow on axillary stems, 



