Sensitive Briar
Including Leptoglottis. ORD. Leguminosae. A genus comprising about half-a-score species of stove or hardy herbs or sub-shrubs, often prostrate, armed with recurved prickles, natives of America. Flowers rose or purplish, in globose heads or cylindrical spikes; calyx small; petals connate in the middle, and forming a funnel-shaped corolla. Pods linear, acute or acuminate, prickly. Leaves bipinnate, often sensitive; leaflets small; stipules bristly. The under-mentioned species merit attention on account of their leaves, which fall at the slightest touch. The plants thrive in a mixture of loam, peat, and sand. Propagation may be effected by young cuttings, inserted in sand, under a bell glass, in heat; or by separating the root tubers.
S. aculeata (prickly). fl. red, in solitary head. July. l. with two or three pairs of pinnae, each pinna bearing numerous pairs of leaflets. Stem tetragonal. Roots creeping. h. 1ft. to 2ft. Vera Cruz, 1733. Stove, herbaceous perennial.
S. uncinata (hooked). Sensitive Briar. fl. rose-coloured, in round heads. June to August. Pods 2in. long, densely prickly. l., leaflets elliptic, reticulated with veins beneath; partial petioles four to six pairs. Prickles hooked. h. 2ft. South United States, &c., 1789. Half-hardy, herbaceous perennial. SCHWANNIA (named in honour of Theodor Schwann, a physician at Bonn). SYN. Fimbriaria. ORD. Malpighiaceae. A small genus (five species) of stove, evergreen, climbing shrubs, confined to Brazil. Flowers red; calyx deeply five-cleft, with eight glands; petals shortly clawed, fringed; stamens six, unequal, all fertile; filaments unequally monadelphous, glabrous; umbels or racemes four-flowered, often paniculate, terminal; peduncles bracteate base, bibracteolate at apex. Leaves opposite, entire, petiolate, glandless; stipules inconspicuous. S. elegans, the only species introduced, is a desirable shrub, thriving in a compost of loam, leaf mould, and sand. It may be increased by ripened cuttings, inserted in sand, under a glass, in heat. S. elegans (elegant). fl., petals pubescent; umbel paniculate; stamens scarcely exserted; peduncles and calyx silky. June. l. ovate or sub-orbicular, acuminate, beneath softly and densely pubescent; petioles having four to six glands. Branchlets silky. 1842.