gif CASSIA. No. 18. 



. 



smooth, green above, pale beneath, with short uni- 

 glaudular petioles, shape ovate, oblong or lanceolate 

 entire, equal, mucronate at the end — stipules subu- 

 late, ciliate, deciduous. 



Flowers of a bright or golden yellow, forming a 

 panicle, although partly axillary and in short racemes, 

 having each from five to fifteen flowers ; peduncles 

 furrowed, pedicels long, glandular, with short bracts. 

 Calix colored, with five oval obtuse and unequal seg- 

 ments. Petals five, spatulate, concave, obtuse, une- 

 qual, two lower larger. Stamina with yellow fila- 

 ments and brown anthers, the three upper filaments 

 have abortive anthers, the three lower filaments are 

 longest, crooked, with long rostrated anthers, all the 

 anthers open by a terminal pore. Germ deflexed with 

 the lower stamina and hairy, style ascending, stigma 

 hairy. The fruits or pods are pendulous, linear, hard- 

 ly curved, flat and membranaceous, a little hairy, 

 blackish, from two to four inches long, holding from 



twelv^e to twenty seeds, or small brown beans. 



HISTORY--The genus Cassia^ although very 

 striking by the structure of its flowers, varies much 

 in its pods, and must be divided into many genera ; 

 Tournefort and Gaertnesr had separated the Cassia 

 Jistida &c. with cylindrical, pulpy, evalve pods, cal- 

 ling the others Stnna ; but Persoon, &c. called the 

 ^^-^-etissm fistula by the new name of Cathartocarpus, 

 leaving the name of Cassia to the Sennas. This was 

 superfluous, and if I was not unwillingto increase this 



confusion, I would call this species Senna rJparla, 

 the nam*'*»r ^i/yT..;?^-. J- l.: i . :,.^,ii 



