336 xlvii. § mimose^e (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' Mossarrib. Bot. 8. A spreading 

 interlacing" shrub with very slender sharply shortly aculeate puberulous 

 branches ; prickles recurved. Leaves 4-6 in. long, rachis aculeate, 

 pinnae subdistant, 5-15-jugate, 1 in. long more or less, leaflets oblong, 

 mucronulate, glabrous, 1 J-3 lines long, in 8-12 pairs. Peduncles axil- 

 lary, solitary or 2 or 3 together, J-l in. 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 3 in. long, J- \ 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 pinnae and 

 tetraudrous 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 lateral layers of albumen. — Herbs or 

 undershrubs, armed with short recurved prickles. Leaves bipinnate, 

 often sensitive, rachis eglandular; leaflets small. Stipules setaceous. 

 Peduncles 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, D C. 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. Pinnae 2-3-jugate, subdistant, rachis 

 usually sparingly aculeate ; leaflets linear-oblong, broadly pointed or 

 subapiculate, base obliquely truncate, glabrous, in 10-20 pairs ; \-^ in. 

 lon°\ Peduncle J in. 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, T. Vogel! Accra, Don. 



Vogel's specimen is not in fruit, but wholly agrees with the Tropical American 

 specimens so far as it goes. 



