410 M I- M 
M I M 
To MIM'IC, v. a. To imitate as a buffoon ; to ridicule 
by a burlefque imitation : 
MIM'ICAL, adj. Imitative; befitting a mimic ; adiing 
the mimic.—A mimical daw would needs try the fame 
experiment; but his claws were fhackled. L’E/lrange .— 
Singers and dancers entertained the people with light 
longs and mimical geftures, that they might not go away 
melancholy from ferioits pieces of the theatre. Dryclen's Juv. 
MIM'IC ALLY, adv. In imitation ; in a mimical man¬ 
ner.—As the facrifices offered up to the true God of Ifrael 
were federal rites, and thole who did partake of them did 
thereby enter into a covenant with God to become his 
lervants, and obey his laws; lo the airy principality hath 
mimical/y obferved the fame thing; and thofe that offered 
facrifices to demons were luppofed, by partaking of thofe 
facrifices, to enter into a ilridler league and familiarity 
with thofe evil fpirits. Hallywell's Melampron. 
MIM'ICKING, f. The a6t of playing the mimic, to 
ridicule fome one. 
MIMICOR'MUS, a man’s name; a poet of Smyrna. 
MIMICRY, / Burlelque imitation.—By an excellent 
faculty in mimichry , my correfpondent tells me he can 
affume my air, and give my taciturnity a llynefs which 
diverts^more than any thing I could lay. Speciaior. 
MIMIZAN', a town of France, in the department of 
the Landes, and chief place of a canton, in the diftrift of 
Mont-de-Marian. The place contains 413, and the can¬ 
ton 2821, inhabitants, in fix communes. 
MIMNER'MUS, a Greek elegiac poet, was a native of 
Colophon, and flourilhed in the fixth century B. C. con¬ 
temporary with Solon. He is faid to have been a mufi- 
cian as well as a poet, and the flute was the inllrument 
on which he performed. In his poetical capacity, the in¬ 
vention of pentameter verle, or the elegiac meafure, is 
attributed to him. His compofitions were chiefly of the 
elegiac kind, according to the ancient conception of that 
word, which by no means confined it to mournful topics. 
On the contrary, this poet was a diftinguilbed votary of 
love and pleafure : thus Propertius fpeaks of him as at 
the head of amorous poetry : “ Plus in amore valet Mim- 
nermi verfus Homero.” Eleg. ix. And Horace bears 
teftimony to his abilities in defcribing that Reducing 
paffion: 
Si Mimnermus uti cenfct, five amove jocifque, 
JSil eft jucundum, vivas in amore jocifque. Epift. vi. 
If, as wife Mimnermus laid, 
Life unbleft with love and joy 
Ranks us with the fenlelefs dead. 
Let thefe gifts each hour employ. 
His manners appear to have been correfponding to his 
philofophy. He was much addidfed to the plealures of 
the table; and in his old age fell in love with a mulic- 
girl named Nanno. Of his poems only a few fragments 
remain, which have been publilhed along with the “ No- 
vem Feminarum Grsecarum Carmina” by Urflnus, Antw. 
1568, and by Wolfius, Hamb. 1734. 
MIMOG'RAPHER, J\ [mimus and y^cttpu.'] A writer 
of farces.—Some are poetafters or mimographers. Her¬ 
bert's Travels. 
MIMOL'OGY, J\ [from the Greek an imitator, 
and Aoyo?, a word.] A treatife on mimicry; a kind of 
burlefque poetry. 
MIMO'SA, J'. [fo named by Tournefort, amimo, from 
the drifting or moving quality of the leaves in fome fpe- 
cies.] Sensitive Plant; in botany, a genus of the clafs 
polygamia, order monoecia, natural order of lomentaceae, 
(leguminoffe, -Tuff.) Generic characters—Calyx: peri- 
anthium one-leafed, five-toothed, very fmall. Corolla : 
petal one, funnel-form, half-five-cleft, fmall. Stamina: 
filaments capillary, very long; antherse incumbent. Pif- 
tillum: germ oblong 5 ftyle filiform, fliorter than the fta- 
The walk, the words, the gefture, could fupply. 
The habit mimic, and the mien belye. Drydcn. 
mens; ftigma truncated. Pericarpium: legume long, with 
feveral tranfverfe partitions. Seeds : many, roundilh, of 
various forms. No part of the fructification is conftant 
in this genus.— E/fential Character. Calyx five-toothed; 
corolla rive-cleft; llamina five or more; piftillum one ; 
legume fuperior, with many cells. Some male flowers. 
I. With fimple leaves. 
1. Mimofa verticillata, or whorl-leaved mimofa : un¬ 
armed ; leaves whorled, linear, pungent. The leaves of 
this plant are defcribed as fimple, linear, pungent or hard, 
prickly at the end, and growing in whorls fix or feven 
together; but it has diffimilar leaves, and the primordial 
ones, or two or three firft leaves which appear on the feed- 
ling plants, are bipinnate. This difpofition to produce 
diffimilar leaves occurs in feveral other fpecies of Mimofa 
lately introduced from New South Wales, of which coun¬ 
try this is a native. It was found there by Mr. David Nel- 
fon, and was introduced at Kew by fir Jofeph Banks. It 
flowers from March to May. Curtis remarks, that it is 
fome years in arriving at its flowering ftate ; that he firft 
faw it in flower, and afterwards with ripe feed-pots, at 
Mr. Malcolm’s at Kennington. 
2. Mimofa fimplicifolia, or fimple-leaved mimofa: un¬ 
armed, arboreous; leaves ovate, quite entire, nerved, 
blunt; fpikes globular, peduncled. This is a beautiful 
little tree, with a fmooth afti-coloured bark, and large 
leaves, very flat, without any longitudinal rib, but with 
numerous nerves; they are quite fmooth, and on very 
Ihort petioles. When not in flower, it has no appearance 
of a Mimofa. Native of the ifland of Tanna. Introduced 
in 1775, by John Reinhold Forfter, LL.D. 
II. With leaves Amply pinnate. 
3. Mimofa alba, or white mimofa: unarmed; leaves 
pinnate, trijugous; pinnas equal, ovate-acuminate; pe¬ 
tiole fubmargined. Native of Cayenne. 
4. Mimofa inga, large-leaved mimofa, or inga-tree: 
unarmed ; leaves pinnate, five-paired ; petiole margined, 
jointed. This is a tree from ten to fifteen or twenty feet 
in height. Native of the Weft Indies, efpecially on the 
banks of rivers ; flowering early in the fpring. 
5. Mimofa laurina, or laurel-leaved mimofa: unarmed ; 
leaves pinnate, two-paired ; pinnas ovate, Ihinihg, almoft 
equal; petiole linear, angular; fpikes axillary, lolitary. 
Native of the ifland of St. Chriftopher. 
6. Mimofa fagifolia, or beech-leaved mimofa: unarmed; 
leaves pinnate, two-paired ; petiole margined. This is a 
tree thirty feet in height, with an elegant clofe head, and 
a ftraight trunk, ten feet long and a foot in diameter. 
The wood is whitilh, the bark grey. Leaves two-paired 
or three-paired ; leaflets fubovate, blunt, dark green, the 
outer ones three or four inches long, and much larger 
than the others. Spike fimple, lolitary, clonfli, two inches 
long, containing about forty flowers, that are whitilh, 
and have fcarcely any fmell. Legume coriaceous, whitilh- 
yellow, inclofing a fweet whitilh pulp, which is fucked by 
the natives. They call the tree and fruit in Martinico 
pois doux, fweet pea. Native of the Weft Indies. 
7. Mimofa nodofa, or knobbed mimola: unarmed ; 
leaves pinnate, two-paired ; inner pinnas fmailer; petiole 
linear. This is a lmall tree, with fpreading unarmed 
branches. Flowers white, in diffufed racemes, ending in 
umbellets, having hermaphrodite and male flowers mixed. 
Native of Ceylon and Cochin-china. 
8. Mimofa pilofa, or hairy-leaved mimofa : unarmed ; 
leaves pinnate, many-paired, very hairy; heads termi¬ 
nating ; legumes ftraight, flender. This is an upright 
Ihrub, four feet high, hairy, with fpreading branches. 
Flowers terminating, conglobated into a larged white 
head. Native of Cochin-china, in woods. 
III. With bigeminate or tergeminate leaves. 
9. Mimofa bigemina, or fliarp four-leaved mimofa : un¬ 
armed ; leaves bigeminate, acuminate. This is a tree with 
alternate 
