BALSAMI'NA LATIFO'LIA. 
BROAD-LEAVED BALSAM. 
Older. 
MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
BALSAM IN ACE A2. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
Introduced 
E. Indies. 
3 feet. 
July, Sept. 
Annual. 
in 1818. 
No. 1149. 
Balsamina, a name which Turner, who wrote in 
the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth, ridiculed as 
barbarous Latin, is derived from Balsamum, Bal- 
sam. It has been noticed by some of our older 
botanists, as having been given to a plant from 
which a balsam was obtained, of much virtue, in 
curing wounds. Peter Treveris, in his “Grete 
Herbal,” published in 1526, tells us how the bal- 
sam was gathered. We will copy his words and 
orthography literally. He says, “It is of trouth 
that they do cut or slytte the tree and rote a lytell, 
& hange vyoles of glas at them and therm droppeth 
the iuce of the sayd clyftes, and so it is gadred.” 
The plants that now belong to Balsamina were 
formerly included in Impatiens. Their separation 
has been founded on their want of resemblance, 
in several particulars. Balsamina has all its 
anthers two-celled, its stigmas distinct, and pedun- 
cles one-flowered. Impatiens has two of its anthers 
one-celled, its stigmas joined, and its peduncles 
many-flowered. We mention these circumstances 
to show to those whose attention has not been 
called to these minute distinctions, that, in general, 
288 . 
Class. 
PENTANDRIA. 
