DALIAN is also the common name of a natural order of succulent herbaceous plants, balsamineog or balraminueesr of botanists. of which the beautiful B. (impatiens balsamina or lialsamina horlensis). so much cultivated in gardens and green-houses, is a familiar example. Upwards of 100 species are known, natives chiefly of damp bushy places in the East Indies, and many of them plants of great beauty. They. are almost all annuals, and have generally white or red flowers. This neutral order is very closely allied to gcraniacess (see iit:stAxtuNs; and o.ralidem.,(si.v.), wood-sorrel, etc., but is distinguished from both by the extreme irregularity of the flowers, and from the former also by the beakless fruit, which is a five-celled capsule, bursting by five elastic valves. The leaves are simple and without stipules, the flowers generally axillary.—The common B. is a native of the East Indies and Japan. Many fine varieties have resulted from careful cultivation. It has an upright succulent stem, usually about 1 to 2 ft. high, but in
favorable circumstances will attain a greater size. It often appears with flowers partially double, but still capable of producing seed. In Britain, the seed is usually sown on a slight hotbed, and the plant is often kept in the green-house; although even in Scotland it may be made an ornament of a sheltered border. It is one of the flowers frequently to be seen in cottage windows. A vulnerary was formerly prepared from it, whence it has its name. One species of B. (impatiens voli-me-tangere), called yellow B. or touch me-not, is a native of Europe, and a doubtful native of Britain. It has yellow flowers, and one of the petals prolonged into a spur. Its ripe capsules burst on the slighest touch. This and two other species are natives of North America.