﻿Loca i.iTits. — In moist shady places and banks of rivulets: chiefly in the 

 North, but rare. — Cheshire; Near Lyme Hall: Mr. G. Holme.— Cumberland ; 

 Keswick : Mr. Hutton. At Scale Hill: N. J. Winch, Esq. — Dorset; In the 

 grove at Dean’s Court, Winbourne, apparently of natural growth: Dr. Put- 

 tenev.— Lancash. Satterthvvaite, by the Cloth Mill: Ray. By the side of 

 Coniston Lake: Mr. Woodward. — Surrey ; Near Guildford : Rev. L. Jenyns. 

 — Westmoreland ; On the banks of W'mandermere, and in little brooks, and 

 watery places near Rydal Hall, plentifully: Sir J. E. Smith. Kirby Lons- 

 dale, not far from the bridge: Mr. Woodward. Near the foot-path between 

 the inn at Ambleside and the cascade : D. Tuuneii, Esq. — Wilts ; Sides of the 

 river Avon, near Salisbury : Dr. Maton. — Yorksh. Roots of the old walls in 

 Fountains Abbey: Teesdale. Banks of the Shell in Studley Woods: Mr. 

 Brunton. — WALES. Merionethsh. By the road-side from Dolgelle to 

 Erwgoed Chapel, about a mile short of the latter place on the right hand : Mr. 

 A. Aikin. — Montgomerysh. Within a mile of Montgomery atGwernDhee: 

 Merrett. Banks of the liver Camlet at Morrington in the parish of Chirbury, 

 about 5 miles from Montgomery: Bindley. — SCOTLAND. Abundant in a 

 wet glen at Castlemilk, near Glasgow ; but probably the outcast of a garden : 

 Mr. Hopkirk. 



Annual. — Flowers in July and August. 



Root fleshy, with many, entangled, horizontal fibres. Stem up- 

 right, from 12 to 18 inches high, succulent and brittle, swollen at 

 the joints, of a pale yellowish green, smooth, shining, and some- 

 what transparent. Leaves alternate, stalked, egg-shaped or ellip- 

 tical, irregularly serrated, smooth. Stipulas none. Flowers large 

 and handsome, yellow, spotted with orange, 4 or 5 together, on 

 branching axillary stalks ; in dry ground the corolla is often abor- 

 tive. Capsule (fig. 9.) succulent, when nearly ripe bursting elas- 

 tically, and scattering its seeds with considerable force, the valves 

 then become spirally twisted as in fig 10. This phenomenon is 

 well explained by Dr. Lindley. 



“ The tissue of the valves,” says this excellent Botanist, “ consists of cel- 

 lules, that gradually diminish in size from the outside to the inside; and the 

 fluids of the external cellules ate the densest. The latter gradually empty the 

 inner cellules and distend themselves, so that the external tissue is disposed to 

 expand, and the internal to contiact, whenever any thing occurs to destroy the 

 force that keeps them straight. This at last happehs by the disarticulation of 

 the valves, the peduncle, and the axis ; and then each valve rapidly rolls in- 

 wards with a sudden spontaneous movement. M. Di trochi.t proved that it 

 was possible to invert this phenomenon by producing exosmose : for that purpose 

 he threw fresh valves of Impatiens into sugar and water, which gradually emptied 

 the external tissue, and, after rendering the valves straight, at length curved 

 them backwards.” Introd. to Bot. p. 282. 



'The whole plant is considerably acrid, and no animal, except the goat, is said 

 to eat it. The caterpillar of the Elephant Ilawkmoth ('Sphinx ElpenorJ lives 

 upon it. 



T he Natural Order Balsami'neje consists of succulent herbaceous dicoty- 

 ledonous plants, w hose leaves are simple, opposite or alternate, toothed, and 

 destitute of stipulce. Their peduncles are axillary. Their calyx (fig. 1.) form- 

 ed of 2 small, deciduous, opposite, usually mucronate sepals, which are imbri- 

 cate in aestivation. T heir corolla is inferior, and composed of 4 petals, the 

 2 outer ones alternating with the sepals, and ending in a callous tip, the upper 

 one arched and emarginate, the lower one (figs. 2 & 6) entire, and drawn out 

 into a spur at the base; the 2 inner petals (figs. 3 A 4.) alternating with the 

 outer ones, more petal-like and equal with each other, usually bifid or appendi- 

 culate (fig. 5.) Their stamens are 5 in number, hypogynous, and closely girt- 

 ing the ovary ; their filargents are short and thickened at the apex; their 

 Anthers rather connate, bursting lengthwise, the 3 lower ones opposite the- 

 petals, egg-shaped, 2-celled, the 2 superior ones rising in front of the upper 

 petal ; these are sometimes 1-celled, sometimes 2-celled. Their ovary is single, 

 and without a style. Their stigmas are 5, either distinct or connected into 1. 

 Their capsule is oblong or egg-shaped, with 5 elastic valves, (fig 10.), and 5 

 cells formed by membranous projections of the placenta, which occupies the 

 axis of the fruit, and is connected with the apex by 5 slender threads. Their seeds 

 are numerous, and suspended, w'ithout albumen ; the embryo is straight, with 

 a superior radicle ; and the cotyledons are flat on the inside and convex on the 

 outside. Don and Lindley. 



