446 ORD. XXV. Lomentacee. CASSIA FISTULA. 
Sp. Ch. C. foliis quinquejugis ovatis acuminatis glabris, petiolis 
eglandulatis. 
THIS tree frequently rises forty feet in height, producing many 
spreading branches towards the top, and covered with brownish 
bark, intersected with many cracks and furrows: the leaves are 
pinnated, composed of four to six pairs of pinnz, which are ovate, 
pointed, undulated, nerved, of a pale green colour, and stand 
upon shortish footstalks: the flowers are large, yellow, and placed 
in spikes upon long peduncles: the calyx consists of five oblong 
blunt greenish Stahutated leaves: the corolle is divided into five 
petals, which are unequal, spreading, and undulated: the fila- 
ments are ten; of these the three undermost are very long and 
curled inwards; the remaining seven exhibit only the large 
anther, which are al] rostrated, or open at the end like a bird’s 
beak: the germen is round, curved inwardly, without any apparent 
style, and terminated by a simple stigma: the fruit is a cylindrical 
pendulous pod, from one to two feet in length; at first soft and 
green, afterwards it becomes brown, and lastly black and shining, 
divided transversely into numerous cells, in each of which is con- 
tained a hard round compressed seed, surrounded with a black 
pulpy matter. The flowers appear in June and July. 
This tree, which is a native of both the Indies, ‘and of Egypt, 
was first cultivated in England by Mr. Philip Millerin 1731.*. The 
pods of the East India Cassia are of less diameter, smoother, and 
afford a blacker, sweeter, and more grateful pulp than those which 
are brought from the West Indies, South America, or Egypt, and 
are universally preferred. In Egypt it is the practice to pluck 
the Cassia pods before they arrive at a state of maturity, and to 
place them in a house, from which the external air is excluded as 
muuch as possible: the pods are then laid in strata of half a foot in 
Aepth, between which palm leaves are interposed: the two 
fellowing days the whole is sprinkled with water, in order to pro- 
* Hort. Kew. 
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