30 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



the short spikes possess long axillary peduncles, and the inferior 

 flowers differ from the superior in that the former are sterile, pos- 

 sessing long exserted petaloid blades, which are membranous 

 staminodes, with or without rudiments of anthers at the apex ; 

 while the latter are, on the contrary, hermaphrodite, much smaller, 

 and usually much less bright in colour. They possess a gamo- 

 sepalous calyx with five valvate teeth, five valvate petals, ten sta- 

 mens with apical glands, and an ovary with a variable number of 

 descending ovules in two vertical rows. 1 In the basal flowers the 

 gynaeceurn is rudimentary or absent, and the perianth much less 

 developed ; all that we see, so to say, is the large petaloid stami- 

 nodes. 2 The fruit is a compressed, oblong, coriaceous, two-valved 

 pod, bent at an angle with its stalk, with false dissepiments inter- 

 posed between the oval compressed seeds. Neptunia is of peculiar 

 habit; the genus consists of herbaceous or suffrutescent herbs, 

 often floating, with thick, compressed, or triquetrous branches, 

 usually bearing adventitious roots. The leaves are alternate, bi- 

 pinnate, with obliquely cordiform membranous stipules. In the 

 more or less submerged species the leaves and inflorescences rise to 

 the surface before expansion. Seven or eight species of this genus 

 are known ; 3 inhabiting the warmer regions of America, North 

 and South, Asia, and Africa. 



II. MIMOSA SEEIES. 



In Mimosa* (Fr., Mimeuse — figs. 22, 23) the flowers are herma- 

 phrodite, or more rarely polygamous. 3 In the different species of 

 this genus, some two hundred in number, we find pretty considerable 



1 The young style is like a broad funnel with 

 a papillose riru. Later on it is much elongated, 

 so that the terminal stigmatiferous dilatation 

 becomes relatively ill marked. 



2 There are really three sorts of flowers in 

 many species, hermaphrodite flowers at the apex, 

 flowers with a gynseceum (except a rudimentary 

 ovary), and with large petaloid staminal fila- 

 ments altogether sterile, at the base; and be- 

 tween the two sets others, some of whose sta- 

 mens are fertile, with more or less elongated 

 flattened filaments. 



3 Mill., Icon., t. 2S2. — Roxb., PI. Coro- 

 mand., t. 119. — Jacq, F., Fclog., t. 50. — 



H. B. K., Nov. Gen. et Spec, i. t. 16.— Wight, 

 Icon., t. 756.— Bot. Mag., t. 46Q5.— Bot. Reg. 

 (1846), t. 3. — Rich., Guill. & Peek., Fl. 

 Seneg. Tent., i. 238.— Walp., Rep., i. 863 ; v. 

 583 ; Ann., iv. 614.— Oliv., FL Trop. Aft:, ii. 

 333. 



4 Mimosa L., Gen., n. 1158 (part.). — Adans., 

 Fan. des. FL, ii. 3119.— J., Gen., 346.— PoiE., 

 Diet., Suppl., i. 49. — GjERTN., Fruct., ii. 314. — 

 K., Mimos., 1. — DC, Prodr., ii. 425. — Spach, 

 Suit, a Buffon, i. 51.— Endl., Gen., n. 6831.— 

 B. H., Gen., 593, n. 387. 



5 Usually 4-5-merous, more rarely 4-6- 

 merous. 



