NAT. ORDER. 



Lomentacece 



CASSIA FISTULA. PURGING CASSIA 



Class X. Decandria. Order I. Monogynia. 

 Gen. Char. Calyx, five-leaved. Petals, five. Anthers, three, 

 sujierior, barren, the three lower ones beaked. Lomentum. 



Spe. Char. Leaves, with five pair of leaflets, ovate, sharp-pointed, 

 petioles without glands. 



This tree rises from forty to fifty feet in height, producing 

 many spreading branches towards the top, and covered with a 

 brownish bark, intersected with many cracks and furrows; the 

 leaves are pinnated, composed of four to six pairs of 2iinn£e, which 

 are ovate, jjointed, undulated, nerved, of a pale green color, and 

 stand ujion short foot-stalks ; the Jlowers are large, yellow, and 

 placed in spikes upon long peduncles ; the calyx consists of five 

 oblong, blunt, greenish, crenulated leaves ; the corolla is divided 

 into five petals, which are unequal, spreading, and undulated ; the 

 filaments are ten, the three under ones are very long and curled 

 inwards, — the remaining seven exhibit only the large anthers, which 

 are all rostrated, or open at the end like a bird's beak ; the germen 

 is round, curved inwardly, without any apparent style, and termi- 

 nated by a single 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 contained a hard round 

 compressed seed, surrounded with a black pulpy matter; \he flotvers 

 appear in June and July. 



88 



