I58 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



There are several closely related species of Yellow Sorrel. Those of 

 the northeastern states are illustrated and described by Britton & Brown 

 (Illus. Flora, 2:432-35, ed. 2) (X. strict a, X. bushii, X. rufa 

 and X. brittoniae). 



Jewelweed Family 



Balsaminaceae 

 Spotted or Wild Touch-me-not 



Impatiens biflora Walter 



Plate 122a 



A tall, glabrous annual, 2 to 6 feet high and much branched, more 

 or less purplish. Leaves alternate, thin, ovate and elliptic, glaucous 

 beneath, 1 to 3 inches long, blunt, the margins toothed. Flowers horizontal, 

 orange-yellow, mottled with reddish brown, or rarely nearly white and 

 not mottled, three-fourths to 1 inch long, on slender, pendant stalks. Sepals 

 three, the two lateral ones small, green, nerved, the other one large, conic, 

 petallike, saccate and spurred, longer than broad, contracted into a slender 

 incurved spur, two-toothed at the apex. Petals three, with two of them 

 two-cleft into dissimilar lobes; stamens five. Fruit an oblong capsule, 

 violently and elastically dehiscent at maturity into five spirally coiled 

 valves, expelling the oblong, ridged seeds. Also developing small, 

 cleistogamous flowers later in the season. 



Low grounds, thickets, ditches, along streams and low, moist wood- 

 lands, Newfoundland to Saskatchewan, south to Florida and Nebraska. 

 Flowering from July to September. 



Pale Touch-me-not; Jewelweed 



Impatiens pallida Nuttall 



Plate 122b 



Resembling the Spotted Touch-me-not, but usually stouter and higher. 

 Flowers pale yellow, sparingly spotted with reddish brown or without 

 spots, 1 to 1^ inches long, the saccate sepal dilated-conic, as broad as 

 long, abruptly contracted into a short, scarcely incurved spur, which is 

 less than one-third the length of the saccate sepal. 



