MiviosA.] • LEGUMINOSJE. 311 



71. MIMOSA, Linn. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. ii, 291. 



Shrubs or herbs, with or without prickles. Leaves (in the Upper 

 Gangetic species) bipinnate ; leaflets small, sensitive, ligulate, cadu- 

 <3ous. Floioeml minute, in dense globose heads, polygamous, mostly 

 4-merous in the Indian species. Calyx campanulate, shortly -toothed. 

 Petals connate towards the base. Stamens as many as or twice tlie 

 number of the petals ; filaments filiform, free ; anthers not gland- 

 crested. Ovary stalked, many-ovuled ; style filiform ; stigma 

 minute, terminal. Pod flat, membranous, made up of 1-seeded 

 joints that separate when mature from the sutures. — Species over 

 200, mostly confined to Trop. America. 



Pinnae digitately arranged, stamens 4 . 1. M. pudica. 

 Pinnae pinnately arranged, stamens 8-10. 



Pinnae 4-12 pairs, pod usually not prickly 5. M. ruhicaulis. 



Pinn^ 3-4 pairs, pod with prickly sutures 3. M. hamtxta. 



1. M. pudica, Linn, 8p. PI. fil<9 ; Boxh. Fl. Ind. ii,564: ; F. B. I, ii, 291 

 Watt E.D. ; Prain in Joiirn. As. Soc. Beng. LX.VI, 506,~Vevn. Lajiuanti 

 (The Sensitive Plant.) 



A widely spreading diffuse undershrub. Stems and branches prickly and 

 densely clothed with deflexed bristles. Leaves very sensitive ; rachis 

 beset with ascending bristles; stipules lanceolate, striate, margins bristly; 

 pinnce usually 4, 2-|-3| in. long, sessile at the end of the petiole ; leaflets 

 12-20 pairs, k ^^- long, sessile, obliquely narrow- oblong, acute, sub- 

 coriaceous, glabrous above, appressed-bristly beneath. Heads usually 

 in pairs, i in. in diam. ; peduncles slender, f-1 in.ilong, beset with spread- 

 ing bristles. Stamens 4. Pod ^-1 in. long, flat, membranous ; joints 

 3-.5, falling ,away when ripe from the sutures which are armed with 

 weak spreading yellowish bristles. 



Dehra Dun, and in the Sub-Himalayan tracts eastward, naturalized as a 

 weed in waste land ; often cultivated. Distbib. Throughout the hotter 

 parts of India, and cosmopolitan in the tropics. It is said to be a 

 native of Brazil. The root and leaves are used medicinally. 

 2 M. rublcaulis, Lamk. Encycl, i, 20 ; W. Sf A. Prod. 268 ; Royle III. 



181 ; D. ^ ^, Bomb Fl. 85 ; Brand. For. Fl. 172 ; F. B. I. ii, 291 ; Watt 



E.D. M. octandra, Roxh. ; Fl.Ind. ii, 564. M. mutabilis. Roxb. Fl. Ind. 



I.e.— Vern. Shiah kanta, hinyrei, dlay (Dehra Dun), dl (Saharanpur). 



A large straggling prickly shrub. Branches reddish when young, slender > 

 grooved finely dowdy, tthickly beset with short recurved prickles. Leave^ 

 6-9 in., with a prickly rachis; stipules subulate; pinnce 4-12 pairss 

 with a bristle-like gland between each pair, 1-2 in. long, usually 

 opposite ; leaflets 10- 12 pairs, about z in. long, obliquely linear- 

 oblong, obtuse, obliquely cuspidate, membranous, appressed-pubescent. 

 Peditncles 1-2 in., solitary or fascicled in the axils of the upper leaves 



