34 NEILGHERRY PLANTS.
adverse to this view: further, he requires that the spur, which is invariably pendulous, and the part of the flower most remote from the axis or stalk that bears it, that is when placed horizontally, should be considered, not normally so, but by a twist of the pedicel, and that its true position is posterior or next the axis. He, therefore, like Kunth, views the spur as the odd sepal, but thinks its proper position should be posterior next the axis, while Kunth con- siders it anterior or remote from the axis. Analogy and the position of the bracts are in favour of Roeper's view, the odd sepal of both Tropeoleae and Geraniaceae, two very nearly related orders, being posterior and often spurred. Should the odd sepal of Balsaminec prove anterior, then it will stand, in that respect, in the same relation to these other orders, as Leguminosa does to Rosacea, if posterior, they may all be united into a class. Should Roeper's view prove, as I believe it will, the correct one, it will go far to unite the four orders, Balsamineæ, Geraniaceae, Tropolece and Oxalidea into one great family, all having the same arrangement of the parts of the flower, all, except the last, having spurred sepals, and in all the spurred or odd sepal posterior. Dr. Lindley, in his school Botany, seems to take an opposite view of Geraniaceae; as, in his diagram, he represents the odd sepal anterior, which is, I find, an error, perhaps of the printer. As such discussions are not easily followed without the assistance of figures, I shall introduce into the next part an undescribed species which I lately found, adding diagrams explanatory of the above descrip- tions.
Though thus affording an admirable field for the display of Botanical ingenuity, the plants of this family have nothing to recommend them to our attention except their beauty as flowers, and it is certainly surprising to me that they are not more prized by the florist, the common Balsam, Impatiens Balsamina, being the only one I have seen in culti- vation, a distinction which, when double, it well merits. Many other species, however, are, in their natural state, much finer than the wild Balsam, and would, I believe, become much finer flowers if cultivated with equal care, such I conceive would be the case with either I. fruticosa, I. scapiflora or I. fasciculata, all most common on the hills during the rainy season, the latter ornamenting every swamp and ditch side with its numerous large rose-coloured flowers.
There are but two genera of this order, Impatiens and Hydrocera. The species of the former are very numerous; of the latter three or four only are yet known. Those of the former extend from the equator as far into the Northern temperate zone as Denmark; two are found in North America; Eastwards, they extend to Java and China, while a few are found in Southern Africa; of Hydrocera, three species only are known, one Indian, frequent in Tanjore, Malabar and Ceylon, one from Java and one from Madagascar. I have only found the Indian one on the plains, never assuming an alpine character.
IMPATIENS.-Balsam.
Sepals 5, apparently only 4 from the union of the two upper ones. Petals 4, apparently only 2 from the union of each of the lower to each of the lateral ones. Filaments 5, more or less united at the apex: anthers opening longitudinally or transversely. Ovarium 5-celled; cells formed by membranous
