168 CAESALPINIACEAE. 



8. Cassia uniflora Mill. Gard. Diet. ed. 8, no. 5. 1768. 



Cassia sericea Sw. Fl. Ind. Occ. 2: 724. 1800. 



Annual, appressed-villous with brownish long hairs, simple or branched, 

 3-10 dm. high. Stipules narrowly linear, 5-20 mm. long; leaves 6-15 cm. 

 long, petioled, bearing long-stalked glands between one or more of the pairs of 

 leaflets; leaflets 2-1 pairs, thin, nearly sessile, oblong to obovate, 2-5 cm. long, 

 rounded or acutish and mucronate at the apex, rounded or narrowed at the base, 

 glabrate above, appressed-silky beneath ; peduncles axillary, 1-f ew-flowered, as 

 long as the petioles or shorter; sepals rounded, about 6 mm. long; petals about 

 twice as long as the sepals; perfect stamens 7; pod narrowly linear, 2.5-5 cm. 

 long, about 4 mm. wide, compressed, deeply impressed between the oblong trun- 

 cate seeds, the margins continuous. 



Roadsides and waste places, New Providence. Long Island and Inagua : Cuba ; 

 Hispaniola ; Jamaica ; Margarita ; Mexico southward to Venezuela. SILKY SENNA. 



9. Cassia villosa Mill. Gard. Diet, ed. 8, no. 4. 1768. 



Shrubby, densely stellate-pubescent all over, 6 dm. high or higher, branched, 

 the branches terete. Leaves petioled, 7-15 cm. long ; stipules wanting, or very 

 early fugacious; leaflets 3-5 pairs, with a short-stalked gland between the 

 lowest pair, very short-petioluled, lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, acuminate at 

 the apex, narrowed or rounded at the base, inequilateral ; flowers few or several, 

 in peduncled axillary racemes shorter than the leaves; pedicels slender, 610 

 mm. long; calyx 7-8 mm. long; petals yellow, veiny, about twice as long as 

 the sepals ; perfect stamens 7 ; pod linear, 5-8 cm. long, compressed, monilif orm, 

 the joints 1-seeded. 



Waste places, New Providence. Native of Mexico. MEXICAN SEXNA. 



Cassia cmarciinata L., a tree of tropical America, recorded by Schoepf as seen 

 by him on New Providence in 1784 is not otherwise known from the Bahamas. 



3. CHAMAECEISTA Moench, Meth. 272. 1794. 



Herbs or low shrubs, with evenly pinnate leaves, often sensitive to the 

 touch, mostly persistent strongly nerved stipules, and yellow flowers in small 

 axillary clusters or solitary in the axils. Calyx-lobes acuminate. Corolla some- 

 what irregular, three of the live petals smaller than the others. Stamens 5-10, all 

 usually with perfect anthers opening by terminal pores. Pods linear, flat, more 

 or less elastically dehiscent, the valves twisting. [Greek, low crest.] About 

 100 species, widely distributed in temperate and tropical region. Type species: 

 Chamaecrista nictitam (L.) Moench. 



Herbs : leaves membranous. 



Pubescence appressed ; pod 3 mm. wide or less. 1. C. CJiamaccrista. 



Pubescence spreading : pod 3.5-4 mm. wide. 2. C. riparia. 



Low shrubs : leaves coriaceous. 



Glands short-stipitate : leaflets shining. 



Branches densely pubescent. 3. C. lucayana. 



Branches glabrous or slightly pubescent. 



Leaflets lanceolate to oblong, acute or mucronate. 4. C. cnriltaca. 

 Leaflets narrowly obovate to obovate-oblong, obtuse. ">. C. inaguensis. 

 Glands strictly sessile: leaflets dull. 6. C. lincnta. 



1. Chamaecrista Chamaecrista (L.) Britton, Bull. Torr. Club 44: 12. 1917. 

 Cassia Chamaecrista L. Sp. PI. 379. 1753. 



Low, slightly woody, diffusely branched, the branches slender, ascending, 

 spreading or prostrate, pubescent or glabrate, sometimes 2-3 dm. long. Stipules 

 lanceolate, acuminate, strongly few-veined, 3-6 mm. long; petioles about as long 



