FRUCTUS CASSIiE FISTUL^E. 221 



that contained a good percentage of argel. 



^/^ 



Nectoux, to whom we owe the first exact account of the argel or 

 hargel plant/ describes it as never gathered with the senna l3y accident 

 or carelessness, but always separately. In fact he saw, both at Esneh 

 and Philcj the original bales of argel as well as those of senna : and at 

 Boulak near Cairo, at the beginning of the present century, the argel 



mixe 



four. 



The leaves of argel after a little practice are very easily recognized; 

 but their complete separation from senna by hand-picking is a tedious 

 operation. They are lanceolate, equal at the base, of the same size as 

 senna leaflets but often larger, of a pallid, opaque, greyish-green, rigid, 

 thick, rather crumpled, wrinkled and pubescent, not distinctly veined. 

 They have an unmistakeably bitter taste. The small, white, star-like 

 flowers, or more often the flower buds, in dense corymbs are found in 

 plenty in the bales of Alexandrian senna. The slender, pear-shaped 

 foUicles, when mature 1| inches long, with comose seeds are less fre- 

 quent. It has been shown by Christison^ that argel leaves administered 

 per se have but a feeble purgative action, though they occasion griping. 

 It is plain therefore that their admixture with senna should be 

 deprecated. 



The leaves or leaflets of several other plants were formerly mixed 

 occasionally with senna, as those of the poisonous Coriaria myrtifolia 

 Lv a Mediterranean shrub, of Colutea arborescens L.,a native of Central 

 and Southern Europe, and of the Egyptian Tephrosia Apollinca Delile. 

 We have never met with any of tliem.^ 



FRUCTUS CASSIiE FISTULA. 



Cassia Fistula ; Purgimg Cassia; F. Casse Canefice, Fruit dii Caneficer ; 



G. Rdhrencassie. 



Botanical Ovigin—Cassia Fistula L. {Cathartocarjnis Fistula Pers., 

 ^^^ctyrilohium Fistula Willd.) a tree indigenous to India, ascending to 

 4000 feet in the outer Himalaya, but now cultivated or subspontaneous 

 im 7^-^^P^' Tropical Africa,* the West Indies and Brazil. It is from 20 to 

 ^0 feet high (in Jamaica even 50 feet) and bears long pendulous racemes 

 f beautiful fragrant, yellow flowers. Some botanists have established 

 *or this tree and its near allies a separate genus, on account of its 

 elongated, cylindrical indehiscent legume, but by most it is retained in 

 the genus Cassia. 



History— The name Casta or Cassia was originally applied ex- 

 clusively to a bark related to cinnamon which, when rolled into a tube or 

 pipe, was distinguished in Greek by the word crOpiyi, and in Latin by 



^•^ai q{ fistula. Thus Scribonius Largus/ a physician of Rome durin 



w 



\ ?/.'• ^^"^- (See p. 21S). ^Sclnreinfurtli found it in 6" N. lat. and 



^^^P^nmtory, ed. 2. 1848. 850. 28-29° E. long., in the country of the Dor, 



leav ^^^Jer will find figures of these where the tree may also be indigenous. 



J*>es contrasted with Senna in Pereira's ® Conipositionea Mi'dkamenfortnn, cap. 4, 



^«- of Mai, Med. ii. part ii (1853) ISGG. sec. 30. 



