CAESALPINIACEAE. 



171 



Family 11. CAESALPINIACEAE Kl. & Garcke. 



SENNA FAMILY. 



Trees, herbs or shrubs, with alternate simple or compound mostly 

 stipulate leaves. Flowers mostly clustered and perfect, sometimes monoe- 

 cious, dioecious or polygamous, nearly regular, or irregular. Calyx mostly 

 of 5 sepals or 5-toothed. Petals usually 5, imbricated, and the upper (un- 

 paired) one enclosed by the lateral ones in the bud. Stamens 10 or fewer 

 in our genera, the filaments distinct, or more or less united. Ovary 1- 

 celled, 1-many-ovuled. Fruit a legume, mostly dehiscent into 2 valves. 

 Seeds with or without endosperm. About 90 genera and 1000 species, 

 mostly of tropical distribution. 



Leaves pinnate : plants not prickly. 

 Prickly vines with bipinnate leaves. 



1. Cassia. 



2. Guilandina. 



1. CASSIA [Tourn.] L. 



Herbs, shrubs, or some tropical species trees, with evenly pinnate leaves, 

 and mainly (in our species) yellow flowers. Calyx-teeth nearly equal, generally 

 longer than the tube. Corolla nearly regular ; petals 5, spreading, nearly equal, 

 imbricated, clawed. Stamens usually 10, sometimes 5, often unequal and some 

 of them imperfect; anthers all alike, or those of the lower stamens larger, 

 opening by 2 pores at the summit. Ovules oo. Pod often curved. Seeds 

 numerous. [Ancient name.] About 200 species, of wide distribution in warm 

 and temperate regions. Type species: Cassia Fistula L. 



Herbaceous perennial : pods flat : leaflets lanceolate, acute. 

 Partly climbing shrub ; pods swollen ; leaflets oval or obovate, 



obtuse. 

 Annual ; pods flat ; leaflets ovate. 



1. C. ligustrina. 



2. C. bicapsularis. 



3. C. occidentalis. 



1. Cassia ligustrina L. PRIVET 

 SENNA. (Fig. 191.) Perennial, 3-6 

 tall, herbaceous, glabrous. Stem 

 grooved; leaflets 12-16, lanceolate, 

 acute, l'-2J' long, about 1' wide ; 

 petiolar gland at base of rachis, 

 elongated, stipitate ; stipules linear, 

 caducous ; racemes few-flowered, form- 

 ing a panicle ; pods flat, glabrous, 

 somewhat curved, 3'-5' long, 4" wide; 

 seeds parallel with the valves, oblong, 

 about 2" long. 



Escaped from gardens to roadsides. 

 Introduced from tropical America, or 

 the southeastern United States. Flow- 

 ers in autumn and early winter. Abun- 

 dant in the West Indies. 



