MIMOSA. 
alternate leaves. Flowers in panicles, from the axils and 
ends of the branches, fcattered, many-ftamened, raona- 
delphous, monopetalous, with the germ on a pedicel. 
Native of the Eaft Indies. 
10. Mimofa unguis cati, or blunt four-leaved mimofa : 
thorny ; leaves bigeminate, blunt. See Botany Plate VI. 
fig. i. This is a fmall tree from feven to ten f&et in 
height. The trunk is branched, and unarmed. Branches 
fubdivided, commonly unarmed, a(h-coloured, wrinkled. 
Native of Jamaica and other iflands in the Weft Indies. 
Browne calls it the black-headJhrub, or large-leafed mimofa. 
Miller lays that they call it Dottor Long , and that the 
feeds are frequently brought to England by that name. 
It was introduced in 1690, by Mr. Bentick. According 
to Sloane, the feeds are eaten by goats, and fometimes by 
the negroes. The bark is very aftringent, and is uled in 
lotions and fomentations in America. 
11. Mimofa tergemina, or tergeminate mimofa: un¬ 
armed 5 leaves tergeminate. Native of the Weft Indies. 
IV. Leaves conjugate, and at the fame time pinnate. 
12. Mimofa latifolia, or broad-leaved mimofa: un¬ 
armed ; leaves conjugate ; pinnas terminating, oppofite ; 
lateral ones alternate. The leaves are like thofe of the 
walnut; and the flowers are purple. Native of South 
America. . 
13. Mimofa purpurea, purple mimofa, or foldier-wood: 
unarmed ; leaves conjugate, pinnate; inmoft pinnas 
fmaller. This alio has purple flowers, and is a native of 
South America. Both were cultivated in 1768, by Mr. 
Miller. 
14. Mimofa reticulata, or netted mimofa; fpines fti- 
pular ; leaves conjugate ; leaflets fix-paired ; petioles ter¬ 
minated by a gland and a prickle. This is a tree with 
rigid branches, that are flexuofe from bud to bud. Un¬ 
der each bud is a pair of horizontal whitilh ftipular thorns, 
the length of the leaves. Native of the Cape of Good 
Hope. 
15. Mimofa viva, or lively fenfitive mimofa: unarmed : 
leaves conjugate, pinnate; the partial ones four-paired, 
roundilh ; Item herbaceous. This has trailing herbace¬ 
ous ftalks, putting out roots at every joint, and fpread- 
ing to a confiderable diftance. In the ftove at Chelfea, a 
Angle plant, in onefummer, fpread near three feet fquare, 
and the branches were fo clofeiy joined, as to cover the 
l'urface of the bed ; but, when permitted to grow thus, 
they feldom produce flowers. The flowers are of a pale 
yeliowilh colour, collected into fmall globular heads. 
This fpecies is fo very fenfibie as to contract its leaves on 
every flight touch or change of the atmofphere ; a puff of 
breath from the mount will make an imprefllon on it; 
and fir Hans Sloane relates, that, having marked his name 
on a bed of it with a ftick, it continued vifible for fome 
time. Native of Jamaica in the paftures or favannahs. 
Cultivated by Mr. Miller in 1759. 
16. Mimofa circinalis, or l'piral mimofa: prickly; leaves 
conjugate, pinnate ; pinnas equal; flipules fpinole. The 
leaves of this tree divide into many ramifications. The 
feeds, which are flat, and one half of a beautiful red co¬ 
lour, the other half of a deep black, grow in long twilled 
pods ; and, hanging by a fmall thread for fome time out 
of the pod, when they are ripe, make a very agreeable 
appearance. It was brought from the Bahama Iflands by 
Mr. Catelby, in the year 1726. See Plate I. fig. 1. 
17. Mimofa cineraria, or alh-coloured mimofa : prick¬ 
ly ; leaves conjugate, pinnate; pinnas equal; prickles 
curved inwards. This prickly fhrub is common in molt 
of the fugar-colonies, el'peciaily in Antigua, where the 
leaves are frequently ufed, mixed with corn, for their 
riding-horfes ; and it is thought to free them from botts 
and worms. It grows in a tufted form, and feldom rifes 
above five or fix feet from the ground, though it fpreads 
a great deal more in its growth. Browne names it Fin- 
grigo, or thorny mimofa. According to Linnaeus, it is a 
native of the Eaft Indies. 
4il 
18. Mimofa cafta, or chafte fenfitive mimofa: prickly ; 
leaves conjugate, pinnate ; partial ones three-paired, al- 
moft equal. The lower flowers of the fpikes are ten-fta- 
mened and barren ; the upper ten-ftamened and fertile. 
Native of the Eaft Indies. 
19. Mimofa fenfitiva, the fenfitive plant: prickly; 
leaves'conjugate, pinnate; partial ones two-paired; the 
inmoft very fmall. This rifes with a ftender woody ftalk 
feven or eight feet high, armed with fhort recurved thorns. 
The leaves grow upon long footftalks which are prickly, 
each fuftaining two pairs of wings; the outer pair has 
two lobes which join at their bafe, and are rounded on 
the outfide, but ftraight on the inner edges, fhaped like a 
pair of fheep-fhears ; they are much larger than the inner, 
are almoft two inches long, and one inch broad in the 
middle. From the place where thefe are infected into the 
ftalk, come out fmall branches, which have three or four 
globular heads of pale purplifti flowers coming out from 
the fide, on ihort peduncles; and the principal ftalk ha* 
many of thofe heads of flowers on the upper part for 
more than a foot in length ; and this, as alfo the branches, 
is terminated by like heads of flowers. Pods broad, flat, 
jointed, opening by two valves; containing one, two, or 
three, comprefl'ed orbicular feeds. A branch of this is re- 
prefented at fig. 2. The leaves, which are fhown in their 
natural polition at a, a, a, move flowly when touched ; but 
the footftalks fail with the leaves into the pofition b, b, b, 
when prefled pretty hard ; for the footftalks have a large 
fucculent knot at their bafe, c, c, which appears to be the 
chief feat of irritability, and on which the leaflets turn, as 
on a hinge, at the flighted touch in that particular part. 
Linnaeus remarks that the flowers have five ftamens, but 
no petals. The fenfitive plant is a native of Brafil, and 
of hedges at Lima. Dr. Houfton lent the feeds from 
Vera Cruz, where alfo it grows naturally, and introduced 
it into the Englifli gardens before 1733 ; but it is not to 
be met with at prelent. 
ao. Mimofa pudica, the humble plant: prickly; leaves 
fubdigitate, pinnate ; Item hilpid. Roots compofed of 
many hairy fibres, which mat clofe together, from which 
come out fieveral woody ftalks, which decline towards the 
ground, unlefs they are lupported; they are armed with 
ihort recurved fpines, and have winged or pinnate leaves, 
compofed of four, and fometimes five, pinnas, whole 
bales join at a point, where they are inferted into the 
footftalk, l'preading upwards like the fingers of a hand. 
Flowers from the axils, on ihort peduncles, collected in 
fmall globular heads, of a yellow' colour. Pods ihort, flat, 
jointed, in clofe clufters, almoft covered with flinging 
hairy covers. Seeds lolitary, rounded, lens-lhaped, finooth, 
fliining, honey-coloured.or rufel.cent, with an eye-like 
ftreak in the middle on each fide, and faftened by a ca¬ 
pillary cord to the inner margin of the valves ; Ikin Angle, 
papery, thin ; albumen watery, pale, thin, adhering clofe 
to the ikin ; embryo ftraight, yeiiow ; cotyledons orbicular, 
leafy; plumule none; radicle rather large, retraCted, 
ftraight, centrifugal. Native of Brafil. It is the moft 
common of any fpecies in the Weft Indies, and in the 
Englifli gardens. The feeds are fold in the feed-ihops, by 
the name of humble plant. Parkinfon calls it mimic, 
mocking, or thorny, fenfitive fhrub; and fays that he law 
a living plant of it in a pot at Chelfea in fir John Davers’s 
garden, where, divers feeds being fown about the middle 
of May 1638 and 1639, fome of them fprang up to be near 
half a foot high. 
Senfitive plants were not unknown to the ancients. 
Theophraftus fpeaks of the Aia-^uvop-svYi as growing about 
Memphis in Egypt; and Pliny of the JEjchynomene, lb 
called from its contracting the leaves at the approach of 
the hand. It is thus charaCterifed in the flowing poetry 
of Darwin : 
Weak with nice fenfe, the chafte mimofa ftands, 
From each rude touch withdraws her timid hands ; 
Oft as light clouds o’erpafs the fummer glade. 
Alarm’d flie trembles at the moving ihade; 
And 
