JEWEL-WEED FAMILY 
( Balsaminacece) 
Jewel-Weed; Spotted Touch-Me-Not ( Impatiens bi- 
flora) is a common rank-growing herb with a stout, 
but fragile, branching stem. The large, inflated flower- 
sac, which is really one of the three sepals, is orange- 
yellow, spotted with brown. Two of these singular 
flowers droop from the ends of each thread-like pedun¬ 
cle, but only one flowers at a time. 
The slim seed-pod is the cause of two very commonly 
applied names,—Touch-me-not and Snapweed. When 
nearly ripe, these pods can scarcely be touched but what 
they will suddenly, almost explosively, burst and scat¬ 
ter their seeds in all directions. One not acquainted 
with their ways, is always startled when he accidentally 
brushes against the mature Touch-me-not. 
The leaves are very delicate in appearance, and their 
light, slender stems are almost translucent; they are 
ovate, round-toothed, dull green above and whitish-green 
below. Common in shady places throughout the United 
States. 
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