218 



LEGUMINOSiE. 



Cassia ohovata ColV was the species first known to botanists, and it 

 was even cultivated in Italy for medicinal use during the first Iialf of 

 the IGth century. Hence the term Italian Senna used by Gerarde 

 and others. In the records of the " Cinque savii alia mercanzia " at 

 Venice we found an order bearing date 1526 to the effect that Senna 

 leaves of Tuscany were inadmissible ; the same was applied in 1676 to 

 the drug from Tripoli in Barbaria, that from Cairo being exclusively 

 permitted. 



Production — According to Nectoux,^ whose observations relate to 

 Nubia at the close of the last century, the peasants make t\YO senna 

 harvests annually, the first and more abundant being at the termination 

 of the rains, — that is in September ; while the other, which in dry 

 seasons is almost nil, takes place in April. 



The gathering consists in simply cutting down the shrubs, and 

 exposing them on the rocks to the burning sun till completely dry. 

 The drug is then packed in bags made of palm leaves holding about a 

 quintal each, and conveyed by camels to Es-souan and Darao, whence it 

 is transported by water to Cairo. By many travellers it is stated that 

 Senna jeheli, i.e. mountain senna {G. acutifolia), finds its way to the 

 ports of Massowhah and Suakin, and thence to Cairo and Alexandna. 



Cassia ohovata, which is called by the Arabs Senna baladi, i.e. indi- 

 genous or wild senna, grows in the fields of durra {Sorghum) at Karnak 

 and Luxor, and in the time of Nectoux was held in such small esteem 

 that it fetched but a quarter the price of the Senna jeheli hvo^^gi^^ 

 ' by the caravans of Nubia and the Bisharrin Arabs. It is not now 

 collected. 



Description— Three kinds of senna are distinguished in Enghsli 



commerce 



1. Akxandrian Senna— Thh is furnished by Cassia acutifolia 

 and IS imported in large bales. It used formerly always to arrive in a 

 ^ery mixed and dirty state, containing, in addition to leaflets of senna, 



a variable proportion of leafstalks and broken twigs, pods and ^^^fH' 

 besides which there was almost invariably an accompaniment ot tne 

 leaves, flowers and fruits of Solenostemma Argel Hayne (p. 220), not to 

 mention seeds, stones, dust and heterogeneous rubbish. Such a diu^ 

 required sifting, fanning and picking, bv which most of these impuntit 

 could be separated, leaving only the senna contaminated with leaves ^ 

 argel. But Alexandrian Senna has of late been shipped of much betre 

 quality. Some we have recently seen (1872) was, as taken from to 

 original package, wholly composed of leaflets of C. acutifolia m a weu- 

 preserved condition ; and even the lower qualities of senna are nCAe 

 now contaminated with argel to the extent that was usual a le 

 years ago. ^ 



The leaflets, the general form of which has already been describe 



', }\ \ a glaucous slirul> with obovate 

 leaiiets, broadly rounded and miicronulate, 

 remform legume terniinated by persistent 

 style, and marked along the middle of each 

 valve by a series of crest-shaped ridges 



^dely distributed m the Nile region than 

 the other species, and is also found in 



Sindh and Gujerat and ("atiiralize^) >" 

 West Indies. Its leaflets (also V^^'l^-^ 

 occasionally be picked out of Aiex^ 

 Senna. _, ,^ afrt 



2 Voyage dans la J^^^'^^'J^f^^Llces <?« 

 <Jcs observations siir ks diverses e^e 

 Sene qui sent ripandues dans le comi 

 Paris, 1S08. fol. 



