In the garden grows a relative of our jewelweed. It is called the
“garden balsam,” and sometimes “lady’s slipper.”
Its own home is far-off India.
Its flowers are larger than those of the jewelweed and are not yellow,
but white or red or pink, and sometimes pink and white spotted. In
shape, however, it is very like the jewelweed; it hides its pistil
beneath the anthers in the same way and snaps its seeds afar.
Its flowers grow double and close to the stalk, and it makes a fine show
in the garden in the fall of the year.
There is one thing I should like very much to know, and that is, just
when and how this Indian balsam and its cousin the North American
jewelweed got separated.
Way, way back, farther back than the building of the pyramids, these two
plants must have had the same ancestors. Now, where did those ancestors
live? In India? In America? Somewhere between? And what caused them
finally to get so widely separated?
Who is going to tell us?
For over two hundred and fifty years the Indian balsam has been
cultivated as a garden plant, and no doubt this long cultivation has
done much to bring about changes. Still, its resemblance to the
jewelweed is quite unmistakable, and we cannot doubt the relationship of
the two.