52 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



several Mimosece. Acacia concinna* from India, and introduced into 

 Bourbon and Mauritius, has also been called Mimosa Saponaria, 2 

 because it froths in water. It is employed like our Saponarias in 

 medicine and domestic economy. We find in and around the seeds 

 and the enormous pods of Entada sca?tdens, 3 when still green, a 

 mucilaginous substance, also existing in the liber ; it is used in India 

 to prepare a decoction for washing the head and hair. 



Several Mimoscce furnish aliments or fermented drinks by their 

 seeds, which contain starch, sugar, or fatty matters. Parkia biglo- 

 bosa 4 is celebrated on this account in Africa. Its seeds are roasted 

 like coffee beans, broken up, and then left in water to ferment. 

 When putrefaction sets in they are washed and reduced to powder. 

 Thus is obtained a sort of nutritive flour, which is made up into 

 tablets like chocolate ; it is used as a condiment to mix with cooked 

 meat. The seeds are surrounded by a floury matter used to prepare 

 an aliment and a drink. The Pots douw (Sweet pea) of St. Domingo, 

 Prosopis faculifcra Dr.svx., contains a sweet nutritive pulp. In 

 Tasmania they roast the pods of Acacia Sopl/ora? and eat the feculent 

 seeds. The seeds of Inga tetraphylla Mart, are also surrounded by 

 a sweet perfumed substance. The seeds of Prosopis Algarobia 6 are 

 also sweet and nutritive. Accordingly, we are told that the drink 

 called chica in South America is often prepared from these pods and 

 their seeds. It is related that the old women pass their time in 

 that country in chewing these fruits, so that the saliva transforms 

 the starch into grape-sugar or glucose ; the bolus then treated with 

 water readily undergoes alcoholic fermentation. Several other 

 species of the section Algarobia of Prosopis have more or less sweet, 

 pulpy, edible fruits, especially P. dulcis K., 7 from New Spain ; 

 P. horrida K., 8 the Algarobe of the Andes, and P. iuliflora DC., 9 of 



1 DC, loc cit , 464, n. 159. — H. Bn., loc.cit., H. Bn, loc. cit., 123, n. 44.— Bbhth., Fl. Aus- 



100, n. 11. — Mimosa concinna W., loc. cit., tral., ii. 398 b. 



1039. 6 See H. Bn., in Diet. Encycl. des Sc. Med., 



" Roxb., in herb, Lamb., ex DC, loc. cit. ii. 7 



3 E. Gigalobiwm DC, Mem. Legum,, 12.— ' Mimos., 110, t. 34. — H. B. K., Nov. Gen., 

 E. Pursmtha DC, loc. cit— Mimosa ecandens et Spec, vi. 307. — DC, Prodr., ii. 447, n. I. 

 L., W., Sw., Roxb. (See above, p. 26, note 4.— — Ac igata W., Spec, iv. 1059.—./. 

 Guib., op. cit., iii. 300. — Enbl., Enchirid., 683. eduUs W .. , 1056? The same properties 

 — Rosenth., op. cit., 1054). are attributed to J'. SiUquastrwm DC. (n. 8), and 



4 P. africana R. Be., in App. Benh., 234, — flexuosa DC. (n. 9), inhabitants of Chili (see 

 Inga biglobosa W., Spec, iv. 1025 ? — P. Beaut., Rosentii., op. cit., 1052). 



Fl. Otoar. et Pen., ii. 53, t. 90. Several Indian 8 Mimos., 106, t. 33. — DC, loc. cit., n. 1. 



ParHas have similar properties. Their seeds 9 DC, loc. cit., n. 13. — Mimosa iuliflora 



are often bitter (see Rosexth., op. cit., Sw., Prodr., 85. — M. piliflora Sw., Fl. Ind. 



1051). Occ, 986.— Acacia falcata Desf. ? (see H. 1 -> ., 



5 R. Be., Sort. New., ed. 3, v. 462.— loc. cit., n. 3). 



