MIMOSACEAE. 161 



style filiform. Pod woody, swollen, nearly terete, very tardily dehiscent or inde- 

 hiseent, pulpy within. Seeds in two rows, imnaersed in the pulp. [Com- 

 memorates C H. Vaehell, an English missionary and botanical collector in 

 China.] A monotypie genus. 



1. VacheUia Famesiana (L.) W. & A. Prodr. 272. 1834. 



Mi7nosa Famesiana L. Sp. PI. 521. 1753. 

 Acacia Famesiana Willd. Sp. PI. 4: 1083. 1806. 



A shrub or small tree up to about 9 m. high, its thin brown bark scaly, 

 the slender branches spreading, the twigs armed with stiff paired whitish 

 spines 1-2.5 cm. long. Leaves glabrous or more or less pubescent, evenly bipin- 

 nate, 4-8 em. long, short-petioled ; pinnae 3-8 pairs, sessile or nearly so; 

 leaflets 10-25 pairs, linear-oblong, 2-6 mm. long, bluntish at the apex; 

 peduncles axillary, slender, mostly shorter than the leaves; heads 8-12 mm. in 

 diameter; flowers yellow, fragrant; calyx about half as long as the corolla; 

 corolla about 1.5 mm. long; stamens 2-3 times as long as the corolla; pod 

 straight or a little curved, 3-7.5 cm. long, about 1.5 cm. thick, pointed, dark 

 brown; seeds shining, 6 mm. long. 



Waste and schub-lands and coastal thickets, Andros, New Providence, Eleuthera, 

 Cat Island, Watling's, Great Exuma, Fortune Island. Grand Turk and Calcos : — 

 Florida ; Cuba to Virgin Gorda and Tobago ; Jamaica ; continental tropical Amer- 

 ica and Old World tropics. Recorded by DoUey as Acacia tortuosa Willd., a Jam- 

 aican species. Ahoma. Casbia. Opoponax. 



7. MIMOSA L. Sp. PI. 516. 1753. 



Herbs, shrubs or rarely trees, mostly with 2-pinnate, often sensitive leaves, 

 the small regular, mostly ■^5-parted, perfect or sometimes polygamous flowers 

 in axillary, peduncled heads or spikes. Calyx small, its teeth short. Petals 

 \-alvate, connate below, hypogynous. Stamens as many as the petals or twice as 

 many, distinct; exserted; filaments mostly filiform; anthers small, eglandular. 

 Ovary 2-many-ovuled ; style slender or filiform; stigma terminal, small. Pod 

 linear or oblong, usually flat, often transversely jointed, 2-valved with the con- 

 tinuous margins persistent. Seeds compressed. [Greek, referring to the sensi- 

 tive leaves of some species.] Over 300 species, natives of tropical and warm 

 regions. Type species : Mimosa sensitiva L. 



Low, sensitive-leaved herb. 1. M. pudica. 



Shrub, the leaves not sensitive. 2. M. liahamensis. 



1. Mimosa pudica L. Sp. PI. 518. 1753. 



Herbaceous, or a little woody, loosely pubescent with long hairs or gla- 

 brate, branched, 5 dm. high or less, the stems and branches armed with rather 

 stout, somewhat curved prickles 2-4 mm. long. Stipules lanceolate, striate, 

 acuminate, 3-6 mm. long; petioles slender, with a pulvinus at the base, 2-6 

 em. long, deflexed when touched; pinnae 1 pair or 2 approximate pairs, also 

 with a pulvinus at base, 2-6 cm. long; leaflets 15-25 pairs, thin, linear, 6-10 

 mm. long, 1.5-2 mm. wide, folding when touched, aeutish at the apex, obliquely 

 rounded at the base; heads ovoid, axillary; peduncles 1-2 cm. long; calyx 

 minute; petals and stamens 4; stamens pink; pods linear-oblong, 2-5-jointed, 

 1-1.5 cm. long, 3 mm. wide, constricted at the joints, the margins armed with 

 slender straight prickles, otherwise glabrous. 



Andros at Mastic Point, collected only by Keith : — West Indies ; continental 

 tropical America ; naturalized in the East Indies. Cultivated on New Providence. 

 Sensitive Pi.ant. 



