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HEEMAPH. Calyx 5-dentatus. Corolla 5-fida.
Staminas, sive plura. Pistillum l. Legumen.
MASCUL. Calyx 5-dentatus. Corolla 5-fida.
Stamina 4, 5, 10, sive plura.
HEKMAPH. Empalement 5-toothed, Blossom
five-cleft. Chives 5, or more. Pointai 1.
A pod.
MALE. Empalement 5-toothed. Blossom 5-
cleft. Chives 4, 5, 10, or more.
MIMOSA foliis sensitivi« palmato-pinnatis, pinnulis,
multijugis. Gaulis pilosus, aculeis
paucis instructus. Petioli et peduncnli pilosi.
Fructus echinatus.
Habitat in Brasilia.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER,
MIMOSA with sensitive leaves palmately winged,
the pinnulae many-paired. Stem hairy, and
furnished with a few prickles. Petioles and
peduncles hairy. Fruit prickly.
Native of the Brazils.
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REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. A flower.
3. A chive magnified.
3. Seed-bud and pointal magnified.
4. The ripe capsule, with a seed detached.
FIVE distinct genera were once included under the generic title 'of Mimosa, but separated by Willde.
now into 102 Acacias, 58 Ingas, 9 Desmanthuses, 3 Shrankias, and 32 Mimosas. This susceptible
species of Mimosa is an old inhabitant of the stove, and well known to cultivators by the appel ation
of the Sensitive Plant (but not to be confounded with the M. sensitiva, a very different species). Although
this Mimosa is neither new nor rare, it is nevertheless very interesting, and has not hitherto
made its appearance in any modem publication ; nor is there any coloured figure of it extant. Our representation
of it, tlierefore, is in part a novelty, however old and familiar the plant itself may be.
According to tlie observations of Linnaeus, it opens or expands its foliage at three in the morning, and
closes it about six in the evening. Its singular quality of shrinking from the touch is supposed to be
owing to its being strongly saturated with oxygen gas, which it disengages upon the slightest provocation,
and its place for a short time is supplied by the atmospheric air; which retiring, the leaves again resume
their former appearance, and so remain expanded till the evening, unless disturbed by design or accident;
fur the rude approach of the common air disorganises its foliage.
The leaf is mostly composed of four divisions, but sometimes five and six may be found in plants of
a luxuriant growth. Each division is supplied with numerous little leaflets, in pairs of an oblong form,
with a small yellow gland at their base, which when carefully touched will close up separately, and
leave tlie surrounding leaflets undisturbed. Jt may be considered either as an annual or a biennial,
dying after ripening its seeds. Our drawing was made from fine plants in the collection of J. Vere, esq.