32 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 
Their flowers are rarely tetramerous, but more frequently penta- or 
hexamerous. Their pod breaks up into one-seeded joints, and its 
marginal string is glabrous or provided with prickles of little rigidity. 
All are trees or shrubs from tropical America,’ with alternate bipin- 
nate sensitive’ leaves (fig. 22) and non-glandular petioles. The 
flowers form short spikes or globular capitula, differently situated 
even in one and the same plant.’ ach flower is axillary to a bract. 
Sometimes the calyx is rudimentary and reduced to a few short 
ciliate bristles. 
In all the other Mimosas the androceum is diplostemonous, there 
being oppositisepalous stamens in addition to those of which we 
have spoken. The number of parts in the floral whorls varies from 
three to five or six, but is usually four or five. In some species, 
forming the section Habdasia,* the pods separate into joints as in 
Eumimosa; the marginal cords are naked or bear prickles, often 
hooked: This section consists of trees or shrubs, sometimes climbing, 
rarely herbs, from tropical America, Asia, and Africa, with glandular 
or eglandular leaves bearing long rigid bristles between the pin- 
nules.’ In the remaining species, however, the valves of the fruit 
fall in single pieces; the petioles very seldom possess glands or 
bristles between the pinnules; the leaves are even sometimes absent 
or replaced by phyllodes. They are trees, or rarely herbs, from 
America, and make up the section Ameria.’ 
The flowers of Schranchkia’ resemble those of Mimosa, with the 
1 There are upwards of a hundred, V=ELLoz., little bud, and so on. In certain species there 
Fl. Flum., xi. t. 31, 33, 34.—H. B. K., Nov. 
Gen. et Spec., vi. 248.—K., Mimos., t. 1-5.— 
Hoox., Icon., t. 373.— Bot. Reg., t. 25, 941.— 
Karst., Fl. Columb, t. 130, 131. 
2 Several species have leaves which fold up 
quickly under different influences, especially 
that of any shock or touch. In M. pudica the 
leaflets rise up and fold together, overlapping 
like tiles; the secondary petioles are approxi- 
mated, while the common petiole descends on 
the branch. 
3 The inflorescences are often axillary. In 
M. floribunda W., and very many allied species, 
there are two pedunculate capitula in the axil 
of a single leaf. They are really inserted on a 
little axillary branch which ends in a bud. In 
M. pudica this short axillary branch ends in a 
bud, and bears first a capitulum on either side 
above the stipules of the axilant leaf, next two 
others, one between either of the former and the 
are only bracts instead of leaves at the summit 
of the branches; in that case we have terminal 
racemes of capitula or spikes. 
* DC., op. cét., 428, sect. ii. (incl. Bataucolon 
DC., op. cit., 428, sect. iii.). 
5 This genus includes some sixty species. 
Cav., Icon., t. 295.—Roxz., Pl. Corom., t. 
200.—VELLOz., op. cit., xi. t. 35.—K., Mimos., 
t. 6-10, 23.—DC., Mém. Légum., t. 63.— 
Hoox., Icon., t. 456.—Kanrsr., op. cit., t. 132, 
133.—OtIv., Fl. Trop. Afr., ii. 835. 
* Bentu., loc. cit. About fifty species are 
known. K., op. cit., t. 26.—ReEtcuz., Icon, 
Exot., t. 63.—Bot. Reg. (1842,) t. 38. For the 
species of this genus generally see WaLp., Rep., 
i, 864; ii, 905 ;Ann. i. 260; ii. 450; iv. 615. 
7 W., Spec., iv. 1041 (nec Mepix).—DC., 
Prodr., ii. 443.—ENDL, Gen. n. 6829,— 
B. H., Gen. 593, n. 888.—Leptoglottis DG., 
Mém. Légum., 451. 
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