164 CAESALPINIACEAE. 



1. Neptunia plena (L.) Benth. in Hook. Jour. Bot. 4: 355. 1842. 

 Mimosa plena L. Sp. PI. 519. 1753. 



Glabrous, the slender branches prostrate or ascending, 3-6 dm. long. 

 Stipules ovate to lanceolate, thin, oblique, 4-6 mm. long ; leaves 4-10 cm. long, 

 with slender petioles; pinnae 2-4 pairs; leaflets 12-20 pairs, linear, thin, 

 faintly veined, 4-10 mm. long, obtuse; peduncles 6-12 cm. long, usually bearing 

 1 or 2 cordate bracts at or below the middle; heads ovoid; flowers yellow, the 

 upper ones perfect, the lower staminate, or neutral with exserted staminodia; 

 pods 2-5 cm. long, about 8 mm. wide, acute or apiculate, thickened on the 

 margins. 



Scrub-land opening, New Providence ; Inagua, near a fresh water pond west 

 of Great Salt Lake : Cuban Cays : Haiti ; Porto Rico ; Antigua to Grenada ; Ja- 

 maica ; continental tropical America. NEPTUXIA. 



11. PROSOPIS L. Mant. 1: 10. 1767. 



Trees, with bipinnate leaves, and small, nearly or quite sessile flowers, in 

 axillary spikes or rarely capitate. Calyx campanulate, 5-toothed. Petals 5, 

 valvate. Stamens 10, distinct, the anthers usually bearing a deciduous gland. 

 Ovary many-ovuled ; style filiform ; stigma small and terminal. Pod linear, 

 subterete or somewhat flattened, coriaceous, indehiscent, the mesocarp spongy. 

 Seeds flattened. [Greek name of some plant.] About 15 species, natives of 

 tropical and subtropical regions. Type species: Prosopis spicigera L. 



1, Prosopis juliflora (Sw.) DC. Prodr. 2: 447. 1825. 

 Mimosa juliflora Sw. Prodr. 85. 1788. 



A tree, up to 13 m. high, but usually smaller, with widely spreading 

 branches, armed with stipular slender straight spines, 1-4 cm. long, the slender 

 twigs glabrous or nearly so. Leaves glabrous, or when young sparingly ciliate, 

 0.7-2 dm. long; petioles slender, 1-4 cm. long; pinnae 1 or 2 pairs, short- 

 stalked ; leaflets 12-20 pairs, linear-oblong, sessile, 7-16 mm. long, strongly 

 few- veined, obtuse or mucronulate at the apex, obliquely obtuse at the base ; 

 flowers greenish or yellowish, in dense cylindric peduncled spikes, 5-10 em. 

 long, 7-8 mm. thick; calyx about 1 mm. long, its teeth short; petals about 2.5 

 mm. long, acute, villous within ; ovary villous ; pod compressed, falcate, 7-20 

 cm. long, 8-10 mm. wide, 5-7 mm. thick when mature. 



Waste places, introduced but not planted, Inagua, near Mathew Town : Cuba ; 

 Hispaniola : Tortola : Montserrat ; Jamaica : Bonaire ; Curacao ; Aruba ; continental 

 tropical America. Naturalized in the Philippine Islands. MESQUITE. 



Family 4. QAESALPINIACEAE Kl. & Garcke. 

 SENNA FAMILY. 



Trees, herbs or shrubs, with alternate, simple or compound, mostly 

 stipulate leaves. Flowers mostly clustered and perfect, sometimes monoe- 

 cious, dioecious or polygamous, nearly regular, or irregular. Calyx mostly 

 of 5 sepals or 5-toothed. Petals usually 5, imbricated, and the upper 

 (unpaired) one enclosed by the lateral ones in the bud. Stamens 10 or 

 fewer in our genera, the filaments distinct, or more or less united. Ovary 

 1-celled, 1-many-ovuled. Fruit a legume, mostly dehiscent into 2 valves. 

 Seeds with or without endosperm. About 90 genera and 1000 species, 

 mostly of tropical distribution. 



