228 A FLORA OF MANILA 
In thickets, common, fl. all the year; very widely distributed in the 
Philippines, thoroughly naturalized. A native of tropical America, now 
found all over the tropics. 
6. MIMOSA Linnaeus 
Herbaceous prickly plants with bipinnate, sensitive leaves, the leaflets 
small. Flowers small, in dense, globose heads, polygamous, mostly 4-merous. 
Calyx campanulate, short-toothed. Petals connate below. Stamens as 
many as, or twice the number of, the petals, much exserted; anthers not 
gland-crested. Ovary stalked. Pod flat, membranaceous, made up of 1- 
seeded joints that on maturity separate from the sutures. (From the 
Greek “mimic,” the sensitive leaves mimicing living animals.) 
A very large genus mostly confined to tropical America, a single intro- 
duced one in the Philippines. 
1. M. pupicA L. Macahia (Tag.); Sensitive Plant. 
A diffusely spreading, suffrutescent herb, the stems branched, up to 1 
m in length, sparingly prickly and with numerous deflexed bristly hairs. 
Leaves very sensitive, both the pinnae and the leaflets falling when touched; 
pinnae usually 4, digitately arranged at the end of each petiole, 4 to 9 cm 
long; leaflets narrowly oblong, inequilateral, acute, 1 to 1.5 em long, sessile, 
sparingly bristly. Heads long-peduncled, solitary or 2 or 3 in each axil, 
nearly 1 cm in diameter. Flowers pink, very numerous. Stamens 4. Pods 
flat, slightly recurved, numerous, 1 to 2 cm long, made up of from 3 to 5, 
l-seeded joints that at maturity fall away from the persistent, armed, 
sutures which bear numerous, weak, spreading, yellowish-white bristles. 
(Fl. Filip. pl. 253.) 
In open waste places, very common, fl. all the year; throughout the Phil- 
ippines. A native of tropical America, now found in all tropical countries. 
7. PROSOPIS Linnaeus 
Erect shrubs or trees with stout spines. Leaves 2-pinnate, the leaflets 
numerous, small. Flowers polygamous, small, in spikes or spike-like race- 
mes. Calyx small, campanulate, entire or slightly 5-toothed. Petals 5, 
ligulate, somewhat coherent at the base. Stamens 10, free, somewhat ex- 
serted; anthers crowned with a gland. Ovary many-ovuled. Pod turgid, 
narrowly oblong, somewhat curved, the mesocarp fleshy, septate between the 
seeds. (An ancient Greek plant name of uncertain application.) 
Species 25 or more in most tropical countries, 1 introduced in the Philip- 
pines. : 
1. P. VIDALIANA Naves. Aroma (Sp.-Fil.). 
A shrub or a small tree 2 to 6 m high, glabrous throughout, the branches 
armed with numerous, long, sharp spines. Leaves bipinnate, solitary or 
somewhat fascicled, each leaf or fascicle subtended by a pair of 1.5 to 4 cm 
long spines, mostly with 2 pairs of 5 to 10 cm long pinnae. Leaflets nu- 
merous, linear-oblong, about 1.5 em long, obtuse. Spikes axillary, 8 to 10 
cm long. Flowers numerous, yellowish or straw-colored, spreading, in- 
cluding the stamens about 7 mm long. Pods 15 to 20 cm long, nearly 1 
em wide, somewhat compressed, rather strongly curved, containing about 
20 seeds. (FI. Filip. pl. 392.) 
Abundant along the Pasay beach, and along and near some tidal streams, 
fl. Sept.-March; very abundant about Manila Bay, and in a few other local- 
ities in the Philippines, undoubtedly introduced from Mexico. 
