96 Plants Collected in Paraguay. 



IVeptimia ptlTbesceiis, Bentli., Hook. Jour. Bot., iv, 356. 



Between Paragiia and Liique (85t). December. 



A slender trailing shrub 20-35 cm. long, entirely unarmed. The 

 leaves close at a touch as in Mimosa. It grows in hard dry soil. 

 Leaves bipinnate, with 2-4 pairs of pinnae and 8-25 pairs of minute 

 leaflets. Flowers bright yellow, exceedingly pretty when fresh, 

 in solitary globose heads, on peduncles 3 cm. in length. Fruit a 

 smooth pod 2-3 cm. long and 5 or 6 mm. broad, flat, 2-edged, con- 

 taining 6-10 seeds, 2 or 3 together, shortly stipitate. Only a 

 minute, scattered pubescence on the leaf rachis. 



Acuan virgata (L.), Med. Theod. Sp., 62. 

 Desmanthus virgatus, Willd., Sp. PL, iv, 1047. 



Gran Chaco(202); Pilcomayo River (1099). November-Feb- 

 ruary. 



Stem branching, glabrous, angular, 1-li m. high. Leaves bi- 

 pinnate, pinnse 2 or 3 pairs, with about 30 pairs of small, oblong, 

 sessile leaflets on each pinnule. A large cup-shaped gland on the 

 rachis at the base of the pinnae. Flowers small, greenish-white, in 

 small terminal clusters. Legumes 3-6 in the cluster, 4-6 cm. long, 

 about 4 mm. wide, acutely pointed, flat, turning black when ripe. 

 Seeds in one row, numerous, flattish, chestnut colored, shining. 

 This plant is very common in old fields in the neighborhood of 

 Asuncion. 



mimosa asperata, L., Sp. PL, Ed. 2, 1507. 



Asuncion (143). August-September. 



The Mimosas are numerous in Paraguay. I collected 9 species, 

 and there are many more. They are usually small shrubs, very 

 spiny, often trailing upon the ground, always with handsome heads 

 of flowers. I give notes upon these species in order to show the 

 differences among them, which are sometimes very striking. 



No. 143 forms dense, almost impenetrable, thickets on the bor- 

 ders of the Paraguay River, in the lowlands near Asuncion. It is 

 a thorny shrub 3-5 m. high, much-branched, the thorns straight or 

 a little hooked, 3-6 mm. long on the stem and petioles. Leaves 

 bipinnate, with 5-10 pairs of pinnae, some of the pinnae 8 cm. long 

 and bearing 41 pairs of leaflets, the leaves often 20 cm. long. 

 Flowers purple, in terminal racemes. Young shoots and stems 

 fuscous-hairy. Fruit a large legume, 5-6 cm. long and 1 cm. wide, 



