Desmanthus. | XLVII. § MIMOSE® (OLIVER). 335 
rent lines from each leaf; attaining 2 or 3 ft. in height. Pinne usually 
in 2-4 pairs; rachis with an oblong sessile gland below the lowest 
aly leaflets “sensitive,” in 10-20 pairs, linear-oblong, subapiculate, 
ase obliquely truncate, sessile, 1}—-3 lines long. Legume usually 
straight, 2-3} in. long, 14~8 lines broad. 
The only Tropical African specimens which I have seen are in Dr. Welwitsch’s herba- 
rium, collected in Ambriz (Congo), where the plant occurs sporadically amongst culti- 
vated Amaranthacee. 
11. MIMOSA, Linn. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. i. 593. 
Flowers small, capitate (or spicate), 4-5-merous. Calyx minute, 
campuanulate, dentate or irregularly laciniate with setaceous segments. 
Petals connate more or less or nearly free, valvate. Stamens (as many 
as or) twice as many as petals, free, exserted; anthers small, eglandu- 
lar ; ‘ pollen-grains indefinite.” Legume oblong or linear, usually flat, 
valves separating entire or in transverse articles from the persistent 
sutural replum.... . —Herbs, shrubs or trees, sometimes scandent, 
aculeate or unarmed. Leaves bipinnate, often sensitive ; petiolar glands 
rarely present. Pedunculate heats (or spikes) axillary or racemose 
towards the extremities, solitary or fascicled. 
A very large chiefly Tropical American genus, with few outliers in the Old World. 
Of the following, M. asperata is a common species in both hemispheres, M. violacea 
restricted to Eastern Africa. 
Legume densely hispid. Calyx setaceous-laciniate. Leaflets 25—40- 
Ws eG GG ot xy iG eG ec eee atc a 
Ebene glabrous. Calyx campanulate, denticulate. Leaflets 8-12- 
jugate . CG A at ae a 
1. MM. asperata. 
2. M. violacea. 
1. M. asperata, Linn.; Benth. in Hook. Journ. Bot. iv. 1842, 400. 
A much branched prickly and coarsely setulose-pubescent hirsute or 
strigillose shrub, often attaining several feet. Prickles sharply pointed, 
Straight, or reflexed from a vertically dilated base. Leaves strigose 
hispid or pilose, usually with slender prickles between the subopposite 
pinne; pinne usually from 7-16 pairs; leaflets crowded, usually 
25-40-jugate, linear, more or less acute, strigose strigose-ciliate 
or glabrate,. usually from 14-4 lines long. Peduncles axillary, 
at length stout, 4-1} in. long, solitary or towards the ends of the 
branches 2 or 3 from each axil. Capitula whitish rose or purple. 
Flowers 4-merous. Calyx minute, irregularly laciniate with seta- 
ceous teeth. Legume oblong or linear-oblong, straight or falcate, 
compressed, diunaely strigose-hirsute, apex rounded usually tipped 
with the remains of the style; valves breaking up into numerous 
narrow transverse articles, which separate from the slender sutural 
replum ; 14-3 in. long, 4 in. broad, on a stipes of 1-3 lines or sessile. 
—. polyacantha, Willd.; DC. Prod. ii. 428; M. procumbens, Schum. 
et Thonn. Pl. Guin. 324; Ergett el Krone, Bruce, Abyss. vii. t. 7. 
(For further synonymy see Bentham lL. c.) 
