LEGUMINOS^E PULSE FAMILY 



Cassia Chamcecrista, L. 



Yellow Partridge Pea, 



Prairie Senna, 



July-September Large-flowered Sensitive Pea, 



Wild Sensitive Plant. 



Cassia: an ancient name of obscure derivation from Greek. 

 Chamcecrista: Greek and Latin for a crest on the ground. 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: the sandiest part of the gravelly 

 roadside. 



THE PLANT: erect or spreading on the ground, eight inches to 

 sixteen inches high; the stem widely branched, the branches 

 spreading, brown, with short, soft hairs or nearly hairless. 



THE LEAVES: alternate; pinnately compound, with twenty 

 to thirty leaflets, which are linear-oblong, or the upper lance- 

 olate, obtuse and mucronate at the apex; pinnately veined. 



THE FLOWERS: large, one inch wide; two to four in the 

 axils, on slender pedicels; some of the petals often purple- 

 blotched. 



THE FRUIT: a pod, linear, two inches long or more; with 

 few or many short, soft hairs. 



A cheery plant that has finely-divided, sensitive leaves 

 and large golden flowers, often purple-spotted, that deco- 

 rate the sandiest part of the gravelly roadsides. 



At night the leaves go to sleep by folding blade to blade, 

 and drooping against the stalk. 



Another interesting fact about the plant is that the pods 

 split when ripe, and by means of a twisting motion, 

 throw the seeds a short distance. In consequence, the 

 next year in place of one plant there will be a little patch 

 of plants. 



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