CASSIA FISTULA, 
filaments are long and incurved. The others exhibit large 
anthers, three of which are rostrated, or like the open beak of a 
bird, at the extremity. ‘The fruit is a long woody, dark-brown 
pod, about the thickness of the human thumb, and nearly two 
feet in length, cylindrical, with two longitudinal furrows on one 
side, and one on the other, and divided into numerous trans- 
verse cells, each containing one smooth, oval, yellowish, shining 
seed, with red lines dividing it lasgitadinally, imbedded in soft 
black pulp. 
The fruit of the Cassta Pikes gi is known in commerce by the 
name of Cassia pods, which are said to undergo a kind of fer- 
mentation, to prepare them for keeping. For this purpose they 
are collected before they are quite ripe, and carried into a close 
room, in which is prepared a layer of palm leaves and straw six 
inches thick, on which they are laid, the room closed, and the 
next day the heap sprinkled with water, and this process re- 
peated. In this way they are treated for forty days till they be- 
come black. Those which are brought to this market come 
principally from the West Indies, packed in casks and cases, but 
a superior kind is brought from the Hast Indies, and is easily 
distinguished by its smaller, smooth pod, and by the greater 
blackness of its pulp. The heaviest pods, and those in which 
the seeds do not rattle on being shaken, are the best, and contain 
the greatest quantity of pulp. 
The tree will thrive in loam and peat, and euttings will root 
in sand under a hand glass, 1 in moist heat. 
CHEMICAL AND MEDICAL PROPERTIES. 
The pulp of Cassta Fisrvta is the only part employed in medi. 
cine, it is of a very dark-brown color, of a very faint and sick 
odor, and of a sweet mucilaginous and sub-acid taste. It is apt 
to become sour if long exposed to the air, or mouldy if kept in a 
damp place. It is viscid, almost entirely soluble in water, and 
partially so in alcohol and sulphuric ether. The watery infu- 
sion, which shows a tendency to gelatinize, has when filtered 
the color of the pulp, and yields a precipitate with alcohol and 
the solution of the superacetate of lead. The alcholic and ethe- 
rial tinctures are not affected by the addition of water, although 
when they are evaporated a thin pellicle of resin remains. No 
alteration is produced on the alcoholic and watery infusions | 
a a infusion of _ nitrate of silver, ee of _— nor ees ae 
