52 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 
several Mimosee. Acacia concinna, from India, and introduced into 
Bourbon and Mauritius, has also been called Mimosa Saponaria,’ 
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 Hnxtada scandens,’ 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 Mimosee furnish aliments or fermented drinks by their 
seeds, which contain starch, sugar, or fatty matters. Parkia biglo- 
bosa* 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 doww (Sweet pea) of St. Domingo, 
Prosopis feculifera Dusvx., contains a sweet nutritive pulp. In 
Tasmania they roast the pods of Acacia Sophore® and eat the feculent 
seeds. The seeds of Inga tetraphylla Mart. are also surrounded by 
a sweet perfumed substance. The seeds of Prosopis Algarobia’ 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 Alyarobia of Prosopis have more or less sweet, 
pulpy, edible fruits, especially P. dulcis K.,’ from New Spain ; 
P. horrida K.,° the Algarobe of the Andes, and P. iuliflora DC.,’ of 
1 DC., loc. cit , 464, n. 159.—H. By., loe. cit., 
100, n. 11.—Minosa concinna W., loc. cit., 
1039. 
2 Roxs., in herb, Lams., ex DC., loc. cit. 
3 FE. Gigalobium DC., Mém. Légum., 12.— 
E. Pursetha DC., loc. cit.—Mimosa scandens 
L., W., Sw., Rox. (See above, p. 26, note 4.— 
Gurs., op. cit., iii. 300.—ENDL., Enchirid., 683. 
—RosEnTH., op. cit., 1054). 
4 P. africana R. BR., in App. Denh., 234.— 
Inga biglobosa W., Spec., iv. 1025 ?—P. Bravv., 
Fil. Owar. et Ben., ii. 58, t.90. Several Indian 
Parkias have similar properties. Their seeds 
are often bitter (see RosENTH., op. cit., 
1051). 
5 R. Br. Hort. Kew., ed. 3, v. 462.— 
H. Bn,, loc. cit., 128, n. 44.—Brntu., Fl. Aus- 
tral., ii, 398 b. 
6 See H. By., in Dict. Encycl. des Sc. Méd., 
ii. 746. 
7 Mimos., 110, t. 34.—H. B. K., Nov. Gen., 
et Spec., vi. 307.—DC., Prodr., ii. 447, n. 4, 
—Acacia laevigata W., Spec., iv. 1059.—<A. 
edulis W., Enum., 1056? The same properties 
are attributed to P. Siliquastrum DC. (n. 8), and 
flexuosa DC. (n. 9), inhabitants of Chili (sce 
RosEntH., op. cit., 1052). 
8 Mimos., 106, t. 88.—DC., loe. cit., n. 1. 
9 DC, loc. cit., n. 18. — Mimosa iuliflora 
Sw., Prodr., 85.—W. piliflora Sw., Fl. Ind, 
Oce., 986.—Acacia falcata DEsE.? (see H. By., 
loc. cit., n. 3). 
