336 XLVII. § MIMOSE (OLIVER). [ Mimosa. 
Very abundant and widely spread through Tropical Africa. ‘“ South Central’’ is the 
only division of the Continent unrepresented by specimens in the Kew Herbarium. It 
affects watery places. In Angola Dr. Welwitsch describes it as forming dense thickets 
penetrable only by beasts of prey. 
2. M. violacea, Bolle in Peters’ Mossamb. Bot. 8. A spreading 
interlacing shrub with very slender sharply shortly aculeate puberulous 
branches ; prickles recurved. Leaves 4—6in. long, rachis aculeate, 
pinne subdistant, 5-15-jugate, 1 in. long more or less, leaflets oblong, 
mucronulate, glabrous, 1}—8 lines long, in 8—12 pairs. Peduncles axil- 
lary, solitary or 2 or 3 together, $—-lin. long, at first very slender. 
Flowers fragrant, ‘ violet,’ 4-merous. Calyx minute, campanulate- 
denticulate. Petals coherent halfway. Ovary glabrous, stipitate. 
Legumes in our specimens not matured, linear, curved, flat, glabrous, 
narrowed above into the acute style-base; about 3in. long, 4-4 in. 
broad. The valves are thin, smooth, and already showing indication 
of transverse rupture. Seeds rather distant, 6-10. 
Mozamb. Distr. Zambesi, Senna and Tette, Dr. Peters! Dr. Kirk! 
M. pudica, L., the sensitive plant of Tropical America, with digitate pinne and 
tetrandrous flowers, occurs in Afzelius’ herbarium from Sierra Leone. 
12. SCHRANKIA, Willd.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. i. 593. 
Flowers small, capitate, 5—4-merous, perfect or polygamous. Calyx 
minute. Petals united more or less. Stamens as many or twice as 
many as petals, free, exserted; anthers small, eglandular; ‘ pollen- 
grains indefinite.” Ovary subsessile, multiovulate; style filiform, 
stigma terminal, obtuse. Legume linear straight, aculeate throughout 
with spreading prickles, valves narrow, continuous, separating from 
the comparatively broad sutural replum. Seeds longitudinal, sub- 
rhomboidal, embryo between ae layers of albumen.—Herbs or 
undershrubs, armed with short recurved prickles. Leaves bipinnate, 
often sensitive, rachis eglandular; leaflets small. Stipules setaceous. 
a short, solitary, or fascicled in the axils. Flowers rose or 
purple. 
A small genus confined to the New World, with the following exception, which is 
common to Tropical Africa and America. 
1. S. leptocarpa, DC. Prod. ii. 443. Branches often from a shrubby 
base, elongate, slender, scandent or scrambling (glabrous or) thinly 
pubescent, shortly aculeate and with prominent longitudinal lines or 
ridges from the leaf-bases. Pinne 2-3-jugate, subdistant, rachis 
usually sparingly aculeate ; leaflets linear-oblong, broadly pointed or 
subapiculate, base obliquely truncate, glabrous, in 10-20 pairs ; 1—4 in. 
long. Peduncle din. or less. Legume 3—4 in. long terminating in a 
long slender beak, longitudinally ridged, ridges bearing numerous 
patent straight prickles. 
Upper Guinea. Cape Coast, 7. Vogel! Accra, Don. 
Vogel's specimen is not in fruit, but wholly agrees with the Tropical American 
specimens so far as it goes. 
