48 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



nists, except Mimosa, Acacia, 1 and Inga f and even as late as 1783 we 

 find Lamarck 3 uniting these into a single genus, which he called in 

 French Acacie (Acacia), in Latin Mimosa. This was a retrogression, 

 for one hundred years since Tournefort had separated the genera 

 Mimosa and Acacia, calling the latter Casse 4 (Cassia). From these 

 several small genera, then containing only one or very few species, 

 were distinguished towards the end of last century, viz., Adenantherc? 

 and Prosopis* by Linnaeus, EntaddJ by Adanson, Zygia* by P. 

 Browne, Gagnebina 9 by Necker, and JYeptunia 10 by Loureiro. A. L. 

 de Jussieu, who knew five of the preceding genera, places them 

 without special comment in the Leguminosae, with regular corollas. 

 In 1314 R. Brown" proposed to make a separate order for Mimoseae, 

 which De Candolle 12 and Lindley 13 considered only a tribe or sub- 

 order of Leguminosae, while Endlicher, 14 too, made them an order 

 altogether distinct. The most recent authors, such as Bentiiam & 

 Hooker, 15 retain it merely as a suborder. 



Few of the genera, except those above-mentioned, date more than 

 sixty-four years back at the very outside. To Willdenow 16 are due 

 two, Schranckia and Desmanthus ; to De Candolle one, Dichro- 

 stachgs ; 17 to Von Martius, Pithecolobium, Enterolobium, and Sfryph- 

 nodendron ; 18 to E. Brown, Parkia f and Affonsea to A. de Saint- 

 Hilaire. 20 Excepting Xerocladia, recently proposed by Harvey, 21 and 

 Archidendron, just characterized by F. Mueller, 22 all the other genera 

 of Mimoseae (viz., Calliandra, Scrim// lies, Lysiloma, Leucaena, Xglia, 

 Pentaclethra, Plathjmenia, Elephantorrhiza, and Tel 'm pleura), were 

 established between 1842 and 1845 by Bentham, 23 who has studied 

 this group with no less diligence and success than the rest of the 

 enormous Order Leguminosae. 



The suborder Mimoseae, thus comprising twenty-eight genera, 



1 T., Instit., 605, t. 375. 12 Jlfnn. Leffum. (1825); Prodr.,\\. (1825), 424. 



2 Plum., Gen. Amer., 13, t. 25 (1T03). is Veg. Kingd. (1846), 552, Orel. ccix. 



3 Diet., i. 8; Suppl., i. 35. " Gen. (1840), 1323, Orel, eclxxvii. 



4 He took Acacia Farnesiana as the type of ls Gen., 136, 482, 588 (1865). 



this genus (see above, p. 41). >6 Spec. Plant., iv. 1041, 1044 (1805). 



Gen., n. 526 (1737). >7 Mem. Legrnn., 428, t. 67 (1825). 



6 Mantiss., n. 1260 (1767). is Herb. Fl. Brasil., 114, 117, 128 (1837). 



7 Fam. des Plant., ii. (1763), 318. » In App. Denh. $ Clappert., 234 (1826). 



8 Jam., 279, t. 22 (1756). «• Toy. dans la Prov. des Diem., i. 387 (1833). 



9 Elem., n. 1296 (1791). 21 Fl. Cap., ii. 273 (1861, 62). 



10 Fl. Cocldnch., ed. Ulyssip. (1790), 653. 2J Fragm., Phyt. Austral., v. 59 (1867). 



11 Gen. Rem., 19 ; Congo, 10. ™ In Hook. Journ., ii.-iv. 



