62 WILD FLOWERS OF THE BRITISH ISLES 
naturalised in Britain, differing in having 2-8 yellow flowers in each cluster; the stem upright; 
and both stem and leaves without hairs. 
Not a native, though apparently naturalised in many counties in the south. July — August. 
Annual or perennial. 
BALSAM. (IMPATIENS, LINN.) — Flowers irregular, generally handsome, yellow, purple, rose- 
colour, or white, solitary, or in clusters. Sepals 3, coloured like petals (petaloid), unequal, the 
back one hooded and spurred at the base, the 2 front ones very small ; petals 3-5, the 2 side 
ones united, and appearing as a single petal, deeply lobed ; stamens 5, with short, flattened 
filaments, and anthers joining together round the pistil ; carpels 5, uniting into a 5-celled seedcase 
(ovary), which is surmounted by minute stigmas, the styles being absent or very short. Fruit a 
capsule, consisting of 5 many-seeded cells, which are attached to a central axis, from which each 
separates from the base, elastically, rolling upwards, and so jerking the seeds to a considerable 
distance. Erect, succulent plants, with alternate, undivided (simple) leaves. 
Yellow Balsam, Touch-me-not. (Impatiens Noli-tang-ere, Linn.)— The only 
native species (as just described). The flowers large, showy, pale yellow spotted with orange, 
in small clusters of 1-3 ; the sepals pale yellow spotted with orange, the hooded sepal ending in a 
long curved-up spur ; the petals pale yellow spotted with orange ; the capsule i-i£ inches long, and 
produced, in this country, by minute imperfect flowers, not by the beautiful showy ones ; the stem 
1-2 feet high, branched, smooth, juicy, swollen at the nodes ; the leaves alternate, oval, pointed, 
and toothed, and of a pale green colour. \Plate 30. 
Rare. In moist, shady places. July — September. Annual. 
Two other varieties, *Impatiens biflora, Walt., with orange flowers, and *Impatiens 
parviflora, DC., with small yellow flowers, are occasionally found, but are not natives. 
