.Mimosa."] L. LEGUMINOS^:. (J. G. Baker.) 291 



125. 



Shrubs or herbs, with or without prickles. Leaves in the indigenous species 

 Tripinnate; leaflets small, sensitive, ligulate, caducous. Flowers minute, in 

 dense globose heads, polygamous, in the Indian species mostly tetrarnerous. 

 Calyx campanulate, shortly toothed. Petals connate towards the base. Stamens 

 twice the number of the petals, much exserted, filaments filiform, free ; anthers 

 not gland-crested. Ovary stalked, many-ovuled ; style filiform, stigma minute 

 terminal. Pod flat, membranous, made up of 1-seeded joints that separate 

 when mature from the sutures. DISTRIB. Species 230, mostly confined to 

 Trop. America. 



(JL TIL, pudica7.mft. ; DC. Prodr. ii. 426; stem and rachises copiously 

 bristly and prickly, leaves digitftte^ pod small with densely prickly sutures. 

 . Roxb. Hort. Bengal ; Fl. Ind. ii. 564; Wall. Cat. 5292. 



Spread through the hotter parts of India, possibly introduced from Trop. America. 



Shrubby, the copious bristly hairs of the branchlets and petioles deflexed, those 

 of the leaf-rachis ascending. Pinnce of the leaves^3-4, nearly sessile, 2-3 in. long ; 

 leaflets 24-40, glabrous, subcoriaceous. Flowers in small peduncled heads, all down 

 the branches, 1-2 from each axil. Pod ^ in. long, 3-4-seeded, with very abundant 

 straw-coloured weak prickles from both sutures, as long as the breadth of the pod. 



2. HI. ruble aulis, Lam. ; DC. Prodr. ii. 429 ; rachises copiously prickly 

 not bristly, leaves bipinnate, pinnae 8-20, pod strap-shaped, the sutures mostly 

 without prickles. Wall. Cat. 5289 ; W. $ A. Prodr. 268 ; Dak. $ Gibs. Bomb. 

 Fl. 85. JVI. octandra, Roxb. Cor. PI. t. 200 ; Hort. Beng. 41 ; Fl. Ind. ii. 564. 

 TVI. mutabilis, Roxb. Hort. Beng. 41 ; Fl. Ind. loc. cit. M. Rottleri, Spreng. 

 Syst. ii. 206. 



WESTERN HIMALAYAS, ascending to 5000 ft. in KUMAON, westward to MISHMI and 

 BHOTAN, and through India proper. DISTRIB. Afghanistan. 



A low tree, with slender grooved finely grey-downy branches, armed with copious 

 small scattered hooked spines. Leaflets 12-24, membranous, \-\ in. long, rather 

 downy below, not venulose, with an obscure recurved cusp. Heads f- in. broad, on 

 short simple erecto-patent peduncles, from the leaf axils and crowded at the top of 

 the branchlets, at first reddish, afterwards bleached. Corolla ^ in. Pod rather 

 falcate, 3-4 in. by f-f in., 6-10-seeded, the sutures rarely furnished (M. spinosisi- 

 liqua, Bottler) with a few distant prickles. 



3. IK. ham at a, Willd. ; DC. Prodr. ii. 427 ; rachises copiously prickly 

 not bristly, leaves bipinnate, pinnae 6-8, pod ligtilate-oblong with the sutures 



armed with large hooked prickles. W. $ A. Prodr. 268 ; Dalz. $ Gibs. Bomb. 

 Fl. 85. M. armata, Rottl. ; Spreng. Syst. ii. 206 ; Wall. Cat. 5290. 



WESTEBN PENINSULA. 



Closely allied to M. rubicaulis, with which it agrees in prickles, general habit and 

 .inflorescence. Leaflets 12-20, oblique, ligulate-oblong, ^-^ in. long, downy or 

 glabrous. Pod rather shorter and broader, downy or glabrous, 4-6-seeded. 



4. XVE. sepiaria, Benth. in Hook. Journ. Bot. iv. 395 ; rachises without 

 either prickles or bristles, leaves bipinnate, pinnae 12-14, pod ligulate with un- 



-armed sutures. 



SINGAPORE, Schomburgk, Maingay. DISTRIB. China. Doubtless introduced into 

 Asia from Trop. America, where it is common. 



A woody shrub, glabrous except the leaf-rachises, which are slightly downy. 

 -Leaflets 12-20, rigidly coriaceous, narrow ligulate, caducous, \~ in. long, with a 



