308 TIEWS, &C. PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 



scarcely rises a foot above the ground. The most sensitive 

 of the Mimosas which we saw in the northern portion of 

 South America, are (next to the Mimosa pudica,) M. dor- 

 miens, M. somnians, and M. somniculosa. The irritability of 

 the African sensitive plant was already noticed by Theo- 

 phrastus (iv. 3), and by Pliny (xiii. 10); but I find the first 

 description of the South American sensitive plants (Dormi- 

 deras) in Herrera (Decad. ii. lib. iii. cap. 4). The plant first 

 attracted the attention of the Spaniards, in 1518, in the 

 Savannahs on the isthmus round Nombre de Dios (" parece 

 como cosa sensible"), and it was pretended that the leaves 

 (" de echura de una pluma de pajaros,") only contracted 

 together when they were touched with the finger, and not 

 when brought in contact with a piece of wood. In the 

 small swamps which surround the town of Mompox on the 

 Magdalena River, we discovered a very beautiful aquatic 

 Mimosa (Desmanthus lacustris), a representation of which 

 is given in our " Plantes equinoxiales" (t. i. p. 55, pi. 16). 

 In the chain of the Andes of Caxamarca we found two Alpine 

 Mimosas (Mimosa montana and Acacia revoluta) growing at 

 elevations of from 9000 to nearly 9600 feet above the level 

 of the sea. 



As yet no true Mimosa, (in the meaning of the word as 

 established by Willdenow,) nor even any Inga, has been found 

 in the temperate zone. Amongst all the Acacias the Oriental 

 Acacia Julibrissin, which Forskal has confounded with Mimosa 

 arborea, endures the greatest degree of cold. In the Botanical 

 Garden of Padua there is a high stem of considerable thick- 

 ness growing in the open air, although the mean temperature 

 of Padua is below 56 Fahrenheit. 



(19) p. 225. "Heaths." 



We do not, in these physiognomical considerations, by any 

 means comprehend, under the name of Heaths, the whole 

 natural family of the Ericaceae, which, on account of the 

 similarity and analogy in the flowering parts of the plant, 

 include Rhododendrum, Befaria, Gaultheria, and Escallonia; 

 we limit ourselves to the very accordant and characteristic 

 form of the species of Erica, including Calluna (Erica vul- 

 garis, L.). 



"Whilst in Europe Erica carnea, E. tetralix, E. cinerea, 



