210 46. LEGUMINOSiE : C^S ALPINES. 



Lamarck founded this species on specimens cultivated in 

 France ; but he had no flowers, and had seen neither pods nor 

 seeds. He states that it was said to have been raised from 

 seeds received from China, and that it had somewhat cylindrical 

 pods and spherical seeds. The only pod and seeds at all answering 

 to this description that we have seen are in the Kew Herbarium, 

 sent from Peking by Dr. Bretschneider ; and they may belong to 

 Gymnocladus rather than Gleditschia. He also sent, on another 

 occasion, a barren shoot named G. sinensis, which has a some- 

 what different appearance from anything else. Bunge's Peking 

 specimens agree exactly with specimens of Lamarck's plant 

 cultivated by Gay ; and we have little doubt that Hance's 

 plants cited above are of the same species. The female 

 flowers are exactly alike, and the differences in the foliage of the 

 various specimens are trifling ; while the large woody, usually 

 curved, long-stalked pod is much more compressed than the one 

 from Bretschneider, and the seeds are oblong. 



In addition to the foregoing, there is a species of Gleditschia 

 in the Kew Herbarium from Shingking, collected by Boss, with 

 inconspicuously veined leaflets and a thin, somewhat curved stipi- 

 tate pod about 10 inches long, containing ovate compressed 

 seeds ; and in the Museum are similar, though straight, pods 

 from Fusi Yama, in Japan, collected by Oldham. Including the 

 stipes, these pods are a foot long. 



1. Cassia glauca, Lam. Encycl. i. p. 647 ; DC. Prodr. ii. p. 495 ; 

 Benth. in Trans. Linn. Soc. xxvii. p. 555 ; Maxim, in Mel. Biol. 

 xii. p. 455. 



Cassia suffruticosa, Keen, in Roth, Nov. Sp. PL p. 213. 



Cassia Horsfieldii, Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. i. 1. p. 99, et in Journ. de Bot. 

 AVer/, i. p. 123. 



South China (Millettl); Hongkong {Wilfordl VrquharV.). 

 Herb. Kew. 



A native of tropical Asia and Australia, often cultivated, and 

 perhaps not indigenous in China. 



\Cassia bicapsularis, Linn., an American species, is commonly 

 cultivated and colonized in other countries including China. 

 Millett collected it at Macao. Bentham (Trans. Linn. Soc. xxvii. 

 p. 525) suggests that C. chinensis, Lam., was a compound of this 

 and C. Sophera, Linn.] 



2. Cassia mimosoides, Linn. Sp. PI. ed. 1, p. 379 ; DC. Prodr. 



