Herrera (Decad. ii. lib. iii. cap. 4). The plant first attracted the attention of the Spaniards, in 1518, in the Savannahs on the isthmus round Nombre de Dios (“parece como cosa sensible”), and it was pretended that the leaves (“de echura de una pluma de pajaros,”) only contracted together when they were touched with the finger, and not when brought in contact with a piece of wood. In the small swamps which surround the town of Mompox on the Magdalena River, we discovered a very beautiful aquatic Mimosa (_Desmanthus lacustris_), a representation of which is given in our “Plantes équinoxiales” (t. i. p. 55, pl. 16). In the chain of the Andes of Caxamarca we found two Alpine Mimosas (Mimosa montana and Acacia revoluta) growing at elevations of from 9000 to nearly 9600 feet above the level of the sea. As yet no true Mimosa, (in the meaning of the word as established by Willdenow,) nor even any Inga, has been found in the temperate zone. Amongst all the Acacias the Oriental _Acacia Julibrissin_, which Forskäl has confounded with _Mimosa arborea_, endures the greatest degree of cold. In the Botanical Garden of Padua there is a high stem of considerable thickness growing in the open air, although the mean temperature of Padua is below 56° Fahrenheit. Footnote 89: p. 225.—“_Heaths_.” We do not, in these physiognomical considerations, by any means comprehend, under the name of Heaths, the whole natural family of the Ericaceæ, which, on account of the similarity and analogy in the flowering parts of the plant, include Rhododendrum, Befaria, Gaultheria, and Escallonia; we limit ourselves to the very accordant and characteristic form of the species of Erica, including Calluna (_Erica vulgaris_, L.).