160 CONTKIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBAEIUM. 



Near Bayamon; near Cabo Rojo around Hacienda Carmelita; near Mayaguez at 

 the fortress. Bahama (Hitchcock), Cuba (Grisebach), Jamaica, Haiti, St. Thomas, 

 St. Croix (Eggers), Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Vincent, Bequia (Kew Bull. no. 81, 

 p. 249), Barbados, Grenada, Tobago, Trinidad. Tropical and subtropical America, 

 Asia, Africa, and Australia, generally common in cultivated and waste places; in the 

 United States extending as far north as Virginia, Indiana, and Arkansas. 



This plant is striking on account of its narrow linear curved legumes, which are 

 oblong-quadrate in section. The young leaves, in spite of their disagreeable odor, 

 are used as a vegetable, while both the leaves and seeds constitute a valuable remedy 

 in skin diseases. The seeds when roasted and ground are said to yield a decoction 

 which is reported to be in every respect as good as coffee. 



Local name, dormidera. 



9. Cassia alata L.a 



(Urban, 275.) 



An erect glabrous or subglabrous shrub, 2 to 4 meters high; leaves 30 to 60 or 90 

 cm. long, rachis acutely margined above when dry, glandular, with a prominent trans- 

 verse ridge connecting the opposite leaflets; leaflets 9 to 12-jugate, upper larger leaflets 

 obovate-elliptical, 7.5 to 17.5 cm. long, firmly membranous; flowers light yellow, in 

 axillary or terminal racemes; sepals 1 cm. long; petals obovate, 1.5 to 1.9 cm. long, 

 the claw 2 to 3 mm. long; legume 2-valved, coriaceous, 12.5 to 15 cm. long, 1 to 2 cm. 

 wide, each valve with a very prominent crenate longitudinal wing extending its 

 entire length and incurved toward the ventral suture. 



Wild and cultivated, near Bayamon, in gardens; near Coamo, in the valley of El 

 Fuerte River; near Maricao, on the bank of the river near Mayaguez. Cuba, Jamaica, 

 Haiti, St. Thomas (Grisebach), St. John, St. Croix (Eggers), Guadeloupe, Martinique, 

 St. Vincent, Grenada. Widely spread in the Tropics of both hemispheres, though 

 probably indigenous only in America. 



This is the only Cassia species in Porto Rico in which the legume is winged. The 

 large leaflets connected by a transverse ridge make it easily recognized. From the 

 leaves, especially in Java and South America, is made a remedy used in skin diseases 

 and they were formerly officinal under the name of folia cassiae herpetica. 



Local names, talantala, talantro. 



10. Cassia polyphylla Jacq. 

 (Urban, 274.) 



Shrub 2 to 4 meters high or tree 15 meters high; leaflets 5 to 15-jugate (often 10 to 12- 

 jugate), minute, 4.5 to 6.5 mm. long, 3 to 4 mm. wide: flowers solitary in the axils of 

 the leaves; sepals 7 mm. long; petals 1.7 cm. long; pedicels 1.5 to 2 cm. long, 

 slender; legume 15 cm. long. 



Near Guayama; near Coamo, at San Ildefonso and on the declivities of Mount 

 Santana; along roads between Ail mile and Coamo; near Ponce, at Peiion; nearjuana 

 Diaz, at Escalabrado; near Guanica, in littoral thickets; near Salinas de Cabo Rojo, 

 in the seashore woods of Mount Juliana. Haiti, St. Thomas, St. Croix. Tropical 

 America. 



This differs from all the other Porto Rico Cassia species in its small fasciculate leaves 

 and its minute leaflets. 



11. Cassia emarginata L. 



(Urban, 274.) 



Shrub 3 to 10 or tree 15 meters high; leaflets 2 to <i cm. long, 1.5 to 3 cm. wide; 

 flowers golden yellow, in racemes which are solitary or fasciculate in the axils of the 



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a For illustration see Cook and Collins, pi. 39, facing p. 159 (as Herpetica alata). 



