m r m 



M I M 



and of a greenish colour. These double flowers 

 arc bantu ; but the single ones are succeeded by 

 flat, smooth, two-vahed legumes, containing 

 several black, shining, compressed seeds. It is 

 a native of La Vera Cruz. 



The second species has trailing herbaceous 

 stalks, putting out roots at every joint, and 

 spreading to a considerable distance. A single 

 plant, in the stove, in one summer, has spread 

 inar three feet square, and the branches so 

 closely joined, as to cover the surface of the 

 bed; but when permitted to grow thus, the 

 plants seldom produce flowers : the leaflets are 

 narrow, and the petioles are short and smooth: 

 the flowers axillary, < n naked peduncles about 

 an inch in length ; they arc of a pale yellowish 

 colour, and are collected into small globular 

 heads : the legumes short, flat, jointed, con- 

 taining ibree or four compressed, roundish seeds. 

 It is a native of Jamaica. 



The third has a creeping root : the stalks 

 slender, having four acute angles, armed pretty 

 clo=elv with short recurved spines : the leaves 

 on "long prickly foot-stalks, and thinly placed 

 on the branches : the w in£;s two pairs, about an 

 inch asunder, short : the leaflets narrow, not 

 very close : the peduncles axillary, sustaining a 

 small globular head of purple flowers : the le- 

 gumes four-cornered, two inches long, four- 

 celled, four-valved ; containing several angular 

 seeds in each cell, It was found at La Vera 

 Cruz. 



The fourth species rises with a slender woody 

 stalk, seven or eight feet high, armed with short 

 recurved thorns : the leaves grow upon long 

 foot-stalks which are prickly, each sustaining- 

 two pairs of w insrs ; the outer pair has two lobes 

 which join at their base, and are rounded on 

 the outside, but straight on the inner edge-.. 

 shaped like a pair of sheep-shears ; they are 

 much larger than the inner, are almost two 

 inches Ions:, and one inch broad in the middle : 

 ffom the place where these are inserted into the 

 sialk, come out small branches, which have 

 three or four globular heads of pale purplish 

 flowers coming out from the side, on short pe- 

 duncles ; and the principal stalk has many of 

 those heads or flowers on the upper part for 

 more than a foot in length ; and this, as also 

 the branches, is terminated by similar heads of 

 flowers : the pods arc broad, flat, jointed, open- 

 ing by two valves, containing one, two, or 

 three compressed orbicular seeds : the leaves 

 move but slowly when touched, but the foot- 

 stalks fall when they are pressed very hard. 

 It is a native of Brazil. 



The fifth ha- the roots composed of many 

 hairy fibres, which sit close together, from 



which come out several woody stalks, which 

 decline towards the ground, unless they are sup- 

 ported ; tl i v are armed with short recurved 

 spines, and have winged or pinnate leaves, coin- 

 posed ol lour, and sometimes live pinnas, whose 

 bases join at a point, where they are inserted 

 into the loot-stalk, spreading upwards like the 

 fingers of a hand : the flowers from the axils, 

 on'short peduncles, collected in small globular 

 heads, of a yellow colour: the pods short, flat, 

 jointed, in close clusters, almost covered with 

 Bringing hairy covers. It is a native oi IJrazil. 



The sixth species has the spike roundish, nod- 

 ding: the flowers ten-stamened, and yellow; 

 the lower ones of the spike without stamens or 

 petals. It is a native of the West Indies, flower- 

 ing in July and August. 



The seventh rises with upright branching stalks 

 six or seven feet high, becoming woody towards 

 the root, with callous dots dispersed upon it, 

 but not perennial (at least they are not so here 

 in any situation, the plants always decaying in 

 winter) ; they are smooth, and the leaves arc 

 composed of four or five pairs of long winged 

 lobes, which have about twenty pairs of small 

 leaves ranged along the midrib ; are smooth and 

 rounded at their points, of a full green on their 

 upper side, but pale on their under : these small 

 leaves contract themselves together on their be- 

 ing touched, but the foot-stalks do not decline, 

 at the same lime, as those do which are titled 

 Humble Plants: it is therefore called the Sensi- 

 tive Plant by way of distinction : the flowers are 

 produced upon long foot-stalks, which come 

 out from the wings of the leaves, and arc dis- 

 posed in globular heads which nod downward, 

 are yellow"; and all those which have petals have 

 ten stamina in each, hut those situated round 

 the border have neither petals nor stamina ; those 

 on the upper part of the spike arc succeeded by 

 pods an inch and a half long, and a quarter o£ 

 an inch broad, which change 10 a dark brown 

 when ripe, inclosing three or four compressed, 

 shining, black seeds. It is probably a name of 

 America. 



The eighth species has tbestems seldom more 

 than two feet and a half high, and smooth: the 

 leaves arc composed of three or Jour pmnas, 

 which are shorter, and the leaflets much nar- 

 rower than in the tiist and seventh sort.-: the 

 heads of the flowers are smaller, being made up 

 of many long while filaments, forming altoge- 

 ther a round head, and the pods longer and 

 narrower, an inch long, and a quarter ot an inch 

 broad, with a round protuberance at each 

 It grows naturally in all the islands of the 

 West Indies, where it has its name from toe 

 leave-- not contracting on being touched. 



