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Show 324 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. has no true Mimosa, but it has three species of Acacia. Even in the north part of Chili, the Acacia cavenia only grows to a height of twelve or thirteen feet; and in the south, near the sea-coast, it hardly rises a foot above the ground. In South America, north of the Equator, the most excitable Mimosas were (next to Mimosa pudica), M. dormiens, M. somnians, and M. somniculosa. Theophrastus (iv. 3) and Pliny (xiii. 10) mention the irritability of the African sensitive plant; but I find the first description of the South American sensitive plants (Dormideras) in Herrera, Decad. ii. lib. iii. cap. 4. The plant first attracted the attention of the Spaniards in 1518, in the savannahs on the isthmus near Nombre de Dios: "parece como cosa sensible;" and it was said that the leaves ("de echura de una pluma de pajaros") only contracted on being touched with the finger, and not if touched with a piece of wood. In the small swamps which surround the town of Mompox on the Magdalena, we discovered a beautiful aquatic Mimosacea (Desmanthus lacustl·is). It is figured in our Plantes equinoxiales, t. i. p. 55, pl. 16. In the Andes of Caxamarca we found two Alpine Mimosere (Mimosa montana and Acacia revoluta), 8500 and 9000 French (about 9060 and 9590 English) feet above the surface of the Pacific. Hitherto no true Mimosa (in the sense established by Willdenow), or even Inga, has been found in the temperate zone. Of all Acacias, the Oriental Acacia julibrissin, which Forskal has confounded with Mimosa arborea, is that which supports the greatest degree of cold. In the botanic garden of Padua there is in the open air a tree of this species with a stem of considerable thickness, although the mean temperature of Padua is below 10°.5 Reaumur (55° .6 Fahr. ). (1 9) p. 240.-11 Heaths." In these physiognomic considerations we by no means comprise under the name of Heaths the whole of the natural family of Ericacere, which on account of the similarity and analogy of the floral parts includes.Rhododendron, Befaria, Gaultheria, Escallonia, &c. We confine ourselves to the highly accordant and character- |
