M I M 



M I M 



and of a greenish colour. These double flowers 

 are barren ; but the single ones are succeeded by 

 flat, smooth, two-valvcd Irsrumes, 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 

 near three feet square, and the branches so 

 closely joined, as to cover the surface of (he 

 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, on naked peduncles about 

 an inch in length ; they are of a pale yellowish 

 colour, and are collected into small globidar 

 heads : the ie2;i.mies short, flat, jointed, con- 

 taining three or four compressed, rouudish seeds. 

 It is a native of Jamaica. 



The third has a creeping root : the stalks 

 slender, having four acute angles, armed pretty 

 closely with short recurved spines : the leaves 

 on long prickly foot-stalks, and thinly placed 

 on the branches : the win2;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 wings ; the outer pair has two lobes 

 which join at their base, and are rounded on 

 the outside, but straight on the inner edges, 

 shaped like a pair of sheep-shears ; they are 

 much larger than the inner, are almost two 

 inches long, and one inch broad in the middle : 

 from the place where these are inserted into the 

 slalk, 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 of tiowers 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 are broad, fiat, 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 verv hard. 

 It is a native of Brazil. 



The fifth has 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 ; they are armed with short recurved 

 spines, and have v.inged or pinnate leaves, com- 

 posed of four, and sometimes five piniias. whose 

 bases join at a point, where they are inserted 

 into the foot-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 

 stinging hairy covers. It is a native of Brazil. 

 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 smootli, and the leaves are 

 composed of four or five jiairs 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 time, as those do which are titled 

 Humble Plaiits: 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 are dis- 

 posed in globular heads which nod downward, 

 are yellow; and all those which have petals have 

 ten stamina in each, but those situated round 

 the border have neither petals nor stamina ; those 

 on the upper part of the spike are succeeded by 

 pods an inch and a half long, and a quarter of 

 an inch broad, which change lo a dark brown 

 when ripe, inclosing three or four compressed, 

 shining, black seeds. It is probably a native of 

 America. 



The eighth species has the stems seldom more 

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

 leaves are composed of three or four pmnas, 

 which are shorter, and the leaflets much nar- 

 rower than in the first and seventh sorts: the 

 heads of the flowers are smaller, being made up 

 of many long white filaments, forming altoge- 

 ther a round head, and the pods longer and 

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

 broad, with a round protuberance at each seed. 

 It grows naturally in all the islands of the 

 West Indies, where it has its name from the 

 leaves not contracting ou being touched. 



