MIM 
plish flowers coming out from the side, on 
short peduncles; the principal stalk has 
many of those heads of flowers on the upper 
part, for more than a foot in length ; this, 
as also the branches, is terminated by like 
heads of flowers ; the leaves move but slow- 
ly when touched, but the foot-stalks fall, 
when they are pressed pretty hard. It is 
a native of Brasil. M. pudica, humble 
plant, has the roots composed of many 
hairy fibres, which mat closely together ; 
from these come out several woody stalks, 
declining towards the ground, unless sup- 
ported, they are armed with short recurved 
spines, having winged or pinnate leaves; 
flowers from the axils, on short peduncles, 
collected in small globular heads, of a yellow 
colour. “ Naturalists,” says Dr. Darwin, 
“ have not explained the immediate cause of 
the collapsing of the sensitive plant ; the 
leaves meet and close in the night during 
the sleep of the plant, or when exposed to 
much cold in the day-time, in the same 
manner as when they are affected by ex- 
ternal violence, folding their upper surfaces 
together, and in part over each other like 
scales or tiles, so as to expose as little of 
the upper surface as may be to the air ; but 
do not, indeed, collapse quite so far; for 
when touched in the night during their 
sleep, they fall still further ; especially when 
touched on the foot-stalks between the 
stems and tlie leaflets, which seems to be 
their most sensitive or irritable part. Now 
as their situation after being exposed to 
external violence resembles their sleep, 
but with a greater degree of collapse, may 
it not be owing to a numbness or paralysis 
consequent to too violent irritation, like 
the faintings of animals from pain or fatigue ? 
A sensitive plant being kept in a dark room 
till some hours after day break, its leaves 
and leaf-stalks were collapsed as in its most 
profound sleep, and on exposing it to the 
light, above twenty minutes passed before 
the plant was thoroughly awake, and had 
quite expanded itself. During the night the 
upper surfaces of the leaves are oppressed ; 
this would seem to show tliat the office of 
this surface of the leaf was to expose the 
fluids of the plant to the light as well as to 
the air.” Dr. Darwin has thus character7 
i?ed these plants . 
“ Weak with nice sense, the chaste 
Mimosa stands, 
From each rude touch withdraws her 
timid hands; 
MIN 
Oft as light clouds o’erpass the summer 
glade. 
Alarm’d she trembles at the moving 
shade ; 
And feels alive through all her tender 
form, 
The whisper’d murmurs of the gathering 
storm ; 
Shuts her sweet eyelids to approaching 
night. 
And hails with freshen’d charms the 
rising light.” 
MIMULUS, in botany. Monkey flower, a 
genus of the Didynamia Angiospermia class 
and order. Natural order of Personatas, 
Scrophulariae, Jussieu. Essential charac- 
ter: calyx four-toothed, prismatical; co- 
rolla, ringent; the upper lip folded back 
at the sides; capsule, two-celled, many 
seeded. There are four species, natives of 
North and South America; 
MIMUSOPS, in botany, a genus of the 
Octandria Monogynia class and order. 
Natural order of Holoraceae. Sapot*, 
Jussieu. Essential character : calyx four- 
leaved ; petals four ; nectary sixteen-leav- 
ed ; drupe apuminate. There are three 
species, of which M. elengi is a middle 
sized tree, with entire smooth leaves ; flow- 
ers axillary, on many simple peduncles; 
calyxes tomentose ; berry superior, defend- 
ed at the base by the permanent calyx, 
having an obsolete groove on one side, shag- 
reened all over with very minute callous 
dots. It is a native of the East Indies, where 
it is much cultivated on account of its 
fragrant flowers, which come out chiefly 
in the hot season. 
MINA, in Grecian antiquity, a money of 
account, equal to an hundred drachms. 
MIND, See Phuosophy of the Mhid. 
MINE, in natural history, a place under 
ground, where metals, minerals, or even 
precious stones are dug up. 
As, therefore, the matter dug out of 
mines is various, the mines themselves ac- 
quire various denominations, as gold- mines, 
silyer-mines, copper-mines, ii’on-mines, dia- 
mond-mines, salt-mines, mines of antimony 
ofalum,«&c, ’ 
Mines, then, in general, are veins or 
cavities within the earth, whose sides re- 
ceding from, or approaching nearer to, 
each other, make them of unequal breadths 
in different places, sometimes forming larger 
spaces, which are called holes: they are 
filled with substances, which, whether me- 
