310 FAMILY HERBAL. 



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Bastard Sena, Colutea. 



A COMMON shrub kept for ornament in our 

 gardens. The trunk is not very robust, but it 



keeps upright, and is covered with a whitish rough 

 bark. The leaves are composed each of several 

 pairs of smaller, set on a commonj rib, with an 

 odd leaf at the end ; but they are rounder and 

 broader in proportion to their length than those 

 of the true sena. The flowers are yellow tlicy 

 are but small, but they hang in long bunches, 

 and are succeeded by pods, which look like blad- 

 ders, of a greenish colour. 



The leaves are used ; some give an infusion of 

 them as a purge but they are very rough : they 

 work both upwards and downwards, and are only 

 lit for verj^ robust constitutions. For such as can 

 bear them, they are good against rheumatic pains. 



The Senega Tree. Senica. 



A TREE frequent in the East, and named from 

 a gum which it affords, and which is brought in 

 great quantities into Europe, The tree is large 

 and spreading ; its trunk is covered with a rough 

 bark, its branches with asl^oother of a pale brown, 

 and they are very full of thorns. 



The leaves are large, and they are composed of 

 many smaller set in pairs, very beautifully and 

 evenly about a common rib, with an odd one at the 

 end of each rib : they are oblong, and of a beauti- 

 ful green. Th^. flowers are white, and of the 

 §hape of a pea blossom ; the fruit is a large and 

 flat pod, jointed or divided into several parts, 

 with seeds in ihcm ; the tree is of the acacia kind, 

 ia many things very like that which produces the 



