Class X. Order I. 



171 



174. CASSIA. 



CASSIA CHAMJECRISTA. L. Dwarf Cassia. 



Leaves in many pairs ; petiole with a pedicelled 

 gland ; stipules ensiform. L. 



Leaves pinnate, with ten or a dozen pair of leafefs ; the pe- 

 tiole with a small gland supported on a footstalk near its base. 

 Flowers often in pairs, near the stem, yellow, two of the petals 

 spotted at base. Like others of its family it shuts its leaves at 

 night, or after an injury. Road sides. August. Annual. 



CASSIA MARILANDICA. American Senna. 



Bigelow, Medical Botany, PI. xxxix. 



Leafets in eight or nine pairs, oblong-lanceolate, 

 mucronate ; an obovate gland on the petiole ; ra- 

 cemes axillary and terminal ; legumes linear and 

 curved. 



The stems, which grow in bunches and often attain the height 

 of five or six feet, are round, striated, and invested with a few 

 scattered hairs. Petioles compressed, channellf d above, bearing 

 from eight to ten pairs of leafets, which are oblong, smooth, 

 somewhat hairy at the edges, pale on the under side, supported 

 by short, crooked pedicels, and mucronated with a rigid bristle 

 at the end. On the base of the petiole is a large obovate pedi- 

 celled gland, of a shining green, terminating in a dark point at 

 top, which is sometimes double. Each petiole is also furnished 

 with a pair of linear-subulate, ciliate, deciduous stipules. The 

 flowers grow in axillary racemes, extending quite to the top of 

 the stem. The peduncles are slightly furrowed, pedicels sup- 

 ported by bractes like the stipules, and marked with minute, 

 blackish, glandular hairs. Leaves of the calyx yellow, oval, ob- 

 tuse, the lateral ones longest. Petals five, bright yellow, spatu- 

 late, concave, very obtuse, three ascending and two descending. 

 Stamens ten with yellow filaments and brown anthers. The 

 three upper have short abortive anthers ; to these succeed two 

 pairs of deflexed linear anthers ; the remaining three or low- 

 er-most are much longer, crooked, and taper into a sort of beak, 

 the middle one being shortest. The authors open by a terminal 

 pore. Germ descending with the lower stamens, hairy. Style 

 ascending, stigma hairy, moist. The fruit consists of long Ic- 





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