745 



Qii)Z Ercagurg of 230tang. 



[mimu 



are covered with scurfy hair. The leaves 

 are alternate, imparipinnate; the flowers 

 arranged in axillary panicles, the calyx five- 

 cleft, the corolla five-petaled, the five an- 

 thers placed on an urn-like cup, and the 

 fruit a dry berry, generally with one seed, 

 the arillus of which is edible. [B. S.] 



MILTONIA. A genus ranking amongst 

 the most beautiful of garden orchids. Nine 

 species are known, and, with the exception 

 of the Mexican M. Karwinskii, they are 

 exclusively Brazilian. They belong to the 

 vandeous Brassideje, and are readily dis- 

 tinguished by the peculiar habit of the 

 species. They are epiphytes, generally with 

 an unhealthy yellowish hue, the pseudo- 

 bulbs furnished with narrow flat leaves, and 

 simple radical scapes bearing a raceme of 

 a few (sometimes one) large showy flowers, 

 the predominant colours of which are yel- 

 low and purple. Their flowers have the se- 

 pals and petals alike ; an undivided sessile 

 lip continuous with the column, Tiiarked 

 with interrupted lines near its base ; a 

 short column with two auricles, which in 

 a few species, constituting a separate sec- 

 tion, are confluent with a raised edge of the 

 anther-bed ; and a membranous naked an- 

 ther, containing two waxy pollen-masses, 

 furrowed behind, and having an obovate 

 caudicle and oblong gland. [A. S.] 



MILTWASTE. Ceterach officinarum. 



MIMETES. A proteaceous genus of 

 shrubby plants, natives of the Cape of 

 Good Hope, distinguished by having a four- 

 parted calyx, the concave segments of 

 which bear each a nearly sessile anther, 

 and a straight filiform style with an acute 

 stigma. The flowers are red or purple, in 

 axillary or terminal heads ; and the fruit, a 

 nut, contains a single smooth seed. The 

 leaves are oval or linear, entire or slightly 

 dentate, generally imbricate, and clothed 

 with scattered silky hairs. ' [R. H.] 



MIMEUSE. (Fr.) Mimosa. 



MIMOSA. A genus of Leguminosce, 

 which, if maintained as originally esta- 

 blished byLinnasus, would comprise nearly 

 the whole of the present suborder Mimo- 

 sea, that is, about a thousand species. It 

 has, however, been much subdivided, and 

 the name retained only for about two hun- 

 dred species which have definite stamens 

 not more than twice the number of petals, 

 anthers not tipped by a gland, and a pod of 

 which when ripe the valves are detached 

 either entire or breaking into transverse 

 joints, leaving the rim persistent on the 

 peduncle. These species are mostly herbs, 

 undershrubs, or climbers ; a few are erect 

 much-branched shrubs ; and scarcely any 

 grow into trees. A large number are prick- 

 ly. The leaves are twice pinnate, usually 

 with a large number of very small leaflets, 

 but in a few species the leaflets are much 

 larger and reduced to eight in the whole 

 leaf. In many species the leaves are sensi- 

 tive; that is,when touched they close down- 

 wards fas do all the species when night 

 come3 onj, and only recover their position 



after a lapse of time greater or less accord- 

 ing to climate, season, weather, or the 

 vigour of the individual. 



The true Mimosas are almost all tropical. 

 The greater number are American, a few 

 of them extending southwards beyond the 

 tropics ; a few species are natives of tro- 

 pical Africa and East India, but none are 

 yet known from Australia, where the larg- 

 est genus of Mimosece {Acacia) is so abun- 

 dant. Very few species also are in cultiva- 

 tion. Of these M. sensitiva is an herbaceous 

 twiner, with only one pair of pinna? to the 

 leaves, each pinna bearing two pairs of 

 0A r ate leaflets, the inner one of the lower 

 pair always very small. This species as ori- 

 ginally defined is now divided into five or 

 six, all South American, of which one, M. 

 albida, has been frequently grown in hot- 

 houses, especially on the Continent, for its 

 sensitive leaves, and elegant flower-heads 

 of a pale pink. M. pudicn is, however, the 

 common Sensitive Plant of our hot-houses. 

 It is a branching annual of one or two feet, 

 assuming sometimes a somewhat woody 

 appearance, of tropical American origin, 

 but now naturalised over a great part of 

 tropical Asia and some parts of Africa. 

 The common leafstalk bears at its extre- 

 mity two, sometimes three pairs of pinna?, 

 each with many small leaflets, all highly 

 sensitive wherever they are touched ; but 

 if a point be applied to the gland at the 

 base of the pinna?, the leaflets may be seen 

 to be gradually cast down, beginning at 

 the last pair of each pinna, and as soon as 

 the movement has extended to the basal 

 pair the whole pinna will be bodily dejected. 

 M. margiTuita, from extratropical South 

 America, is a very elegant half-herbaceous 

 climber, occasionally grown in our conser- 

 vatories. It is scarcely sensitive in our 

 climate. M. asperata, a small shrub with 

 numerojjs'pinnas and leaflets, is perhaps the 

 widest spread species over South America 

 and Africa. M. myriadenia in tropical 

 America, a woody climber, is remarkable 

 for the great height it attains, ascending 

 like the Entadas to the tops of the tallest 

 trees. Several other South American prick- 

 ly species are very tall woody climbers, as 

 are also M. rubifolia and a few others in 

 India. No species appears to have been 

 applied to any special purpose, and few 

 are as worthy of cultivation for ornament 

 as the majority of the species of Acacia 

 and Calliandra. 



MIMULUS. A genus of herbaceous 

 plants, belonging to the order Scrophula- 

 riaceai, with opposite mostly toothed 

 leaves, quadrangular stems, and showy 

 flowers which are generally solitary and 

 axillary. The distinctive characters are : 

 calyx five-angled, five-cleft ; corolla rin- 

 gent, the upper lip reflexed ; stigma com- 

 pressed, two-cleft ; seed-vessel two-celled, 

 many-seeded. None of the species are in- 

 digenous, but M. luteus, the yellow Mon- 

 key-flower, is not unfrequently found, ap- 

 parently in a wild state, on the banks of 

 rivers and in other wet places. Owing to 

 the creeping habit of this plant, its'readi- 



