186 ‘ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BOTANY OF [Leguminose. 
times of scarcity. The Ceratonia siliqua, or carob-tree, khurnooh shamee, as yielding an ~ 
edible fruit, and the seeds affording food for cattle, has been recommended (p. 163) to be 
introduced into the North of India. Both the tamarind and carob are slightly aperient, 
as is the sweetish secretion which surrounds the seeds in the long legume of Cassia 
jistula, much used in Indian medicine. The Cassias are better known for the purgative 
properties of the officinal species than for any others; a property participated in by 
the leaves of other species of the genus, as C.marilandica, occidentalis and tora. Some of 
the species, with strong and disagreeable odour, as C.sophora, occidentalis, and obtusa, 
are employed in curing various cutaneous affections. C. alata is called in India dad- 
murdun, which may be translated herpes-killer. The seeds of the same species were ° 
sent to Dr.:Roxburgh from the West-Indies under the name of Cassia herpetica. 
The most valuable and extensively-used of the products of the plants of this tribe 
are the different kinds of senna, produced by two species of Cassia, according to some, 
but by four or five species, according to other botanists, of the section Senna, or genus 
of some authors. The sennas of commerce are imported into Europe chiefly from Alex- 
andria and the East-Indies. Though it is difficult to assign the different commercial 
varieties to the species which produce them, yet the present state of our knowledge 
appears to justify the following statement. 
Cassia obovata, or the blunt-leaved senna, is found in Lower and Upper Egypt and 
Nubia ; in Central Africa, in the Wady Gherurbi, according to Dr. Oudney ; and on the 
western and northern coasts of that continent. From these it must have been intro- 
duced into Syria and Italy, whence it has obtained the names of Aleppo and Italian 
Senna. From Egypt and the eastern coast of Africa, it is probably introduced into the 
Peninsula of India, as it is said by Dr. Ainslie to be alone used there by the Indian 
practitioners ; but a nearly allied species, C. obtusa, Roxb., is common “ on the high, 
dry, uncultivated lands of Mysore, where the leaves are used as a substitute for senna.” 
Roxb. Fl. Ind. 2. p. 344. : 
The Alexandrian Senna is produced by the Cassia acutifolia of Delile, Fl. Hg. t. 27. 
f. 1, which differs little in botanical characters from, and indeed has been united with, 
C. lanceclata, of Forskal, by M. De Candolle; and this name is given to it by Nectoux, 
(Voy. dans la Haute Egypte, 19. pl.11.) This species, first met with about Phile and Syene 
in Upper Egypt, is also found in Nubia and Sennaar, and brought by the Arabs to 
Esneh, whence it is conveyed down the Nile to Boulac, where five parts are mixed with 
three parts of the leaves of C. obovata, and two parts of Cynanchum Argel, Delile, to 
form the senna of commerce. To this species is nearly allied the Cassia evata of Messrs. 
Merat and Delens, called Séné de Tripoli, from the place of its growth. 
- Cassia lanceolata of Forskal, described by him as found at Surdud, and also at Mor 
in the northern parts of Arabia, also about Mocha, and the district of Abuarish, is that 
which from its place of exportation is called swna mukkee, Senna of Mecca. Some 
portion is conveyed into Egypt, according to both Forskal and Delile, but the greater 
portion is exported to India, and finds its way into the interior by means of the ports of 
| Surat 
