﻿MR. G. BENTHAM ON THE MIMOSE^. '353 



in the Mascarene islands 2 species in 2 genera, of which 1 endemic; in Asia 5 species in 

 5 genera or suhgenera, of which 1 endemic, and in Australia 3 species in 2 genera. 

 Stryphnodendron, with 8 species, is the only genus of the tribe which luxuriates in the 

 moist tropical forests east of the Andes, with systematic as well as geographical characters 

 showing an approach to the Piptadenieae, but with the albuminous seeds and thick 



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scarcely dehiscent pods of Frosopk and its allies. Algarobia, including St rombocarpa, 

 the American subgenus of Frosops, has a very different geographical constitution from 

 any of the preceding Mimoseae. Scarcely known east of the Andes, and certainly absent 

 from the forest regions of Brazil and Guiana, it has one tropical species so variable that it 

 has been divided into from two to about a dozen supposed species, extensively phiuted, but 

 appearing to have a really indigenous range of remarkable extent, from extratropicnl 

 Chili along the tropical Andes and coast of the Pacific to Mexico and the West Indies. 

 11 other American species are extratropical or nearly so, southern or northern, none of 



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the Argentine or Chilian ones absolutely identical with the Mexican or Texan, hut some- 

 times closely representativCi Adenopis, the Asiatic subgenus of Frosopis, with 2 species, 

 extends from the western extratropical districts to the Indian peninsula ; Anonj/chia, the 

 African monotypic subgenus, is more tropical, but affects rather the desert than the 

 forest region. Adenanthera, 3 species from tropical Asia and Australia, and Tetrajikui-a, 

 3 tropical African species, are, hke the American Stryphwdendron, inhabitants of the 

 forest. Xerocladia is a single strongly differentiated South-African extratropical 

 species ; Oagnehina, a single Mascarene species. The more tropical Dkhrostachi/a has a 

 wide range with more variable species, but it is still more abundant in the open regions 

 of the Acacite {Gummifera;) than in the moist forests. We have i African, 1 Mascarene, 

 1 Asiatic and 2 Australian species, those of each country quite distinct, although the two 

 nearest allied, the wide-spread and yariable African D. nutans and the Indian-peninsula 

 D. cinerea, may be considered as representative. 



This tribe well Ulustrates the fact that as the character becomes less tropical, the 

 specific divergences in the two hemispheres are more marked ; not only have representa- 

 tive species disappeared, but there is no subgenus of Adenantherea, common to the New 

 and the Old World-one amongst other grounds for conjectunng that Mimos«B ongmated 

 in a tropical region, and have only here and there produced races with a eonst.tul.on 

 snfflcien ly hardened to flourish and multiply in more temperate climates. 



The only exceptional species of the tribe without glands to the anthers are two speues 

 of extrlSpcal South Am'erican Frosapis, in other respcets Rowing an approach, rath,, 

 in habit thfn in character, to some ^^^'^^^^^ ^u. 



The tribe Mm^ose., or ^--"'^ ^^^loTlJrX tWck or fleshy, ha, its Ame- 



ahnost always eglandular anthers, and the pod vco ra y If^ ^^ ^^ ^^ 



rican character more decided than any ott^r Th 6 g o^ ^^^ 



riean, with about 300 species ^f J™/; "^ fewext ropical, both north and south ; 

 variable, others very local and d.stmct, antt ^ ^ .^^^^.^^^ ^^^ ^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^_ 



whilst the Old World has but 13 species^ ot ^^^^^j.^^^^^„^ ^^ 2 or 3 subordinate 



sentative of American ones. IiJ^'f ""f, » . ^^ western West-Indian or eitra- 

 groups of Mimom, with about half a hundred species, ar 3^2 



