Materials fur a Flora of the Malayan Peninsula. 161 



Flor. lud. Bat. I, 94; Bak in Flor. Brit. Ind. II, 262. C. fcetida Pers. 

 Synops. I, 457. 0. Sophera Wall. Oat. 5317 L. not of Linn. Senna 

 occidentalis Roxb, Flor. Ind. II, 343. 



In all the Provinces, a very common weed of waste places. Distrib. 

 Cosmopolitan in the tropics but in all probability derived originally 

 from America and only introduced in the Old World. 



Mr. Baker describes the flowers as pale lilac ; this they appear never to be in 

 South-Eastern Asia. 



9. Oassia Sophera Liun. Sp. PI. 379. A diffuse sub-glabrous 

 shrub 8-10 feet high, annual or subperennial. Leaves equally pinnate 

 8-JO in. long ; leaflets 8-12 pairs opposite, membranous, glaucous, lanceo- 

 late with cuiieate base, apex acuminate, glabrous, 2-3 in. long •5-'75 in. 

 wide ; lateral veins 10-12 pairs spreading ; petiolules very short 

 glabrous as is the leaf-rachis which has a single large conical gland 

 •2-25 in. above its base. Fiowers in axillary distinctly peduncled few- 

 fld. corymbs, bracts green ovate-acute minute caducous, '15 in. long, 

 pedicels '25 in. long sparsely puberulous spreading ; in fruit reaching 

 •5 in. long ascending rigid. Calyx 5-partite to base, segments green 

 glabrous firmly membranous obtuse '25 in long. Petals 5 subequal, 

 yellow, hardly at all veined, "5 in. long, '3 in. wide, ovate-obtuse. 

 Stamens 7 (the 3 upper replaced by staminodes) the 3 lower longer 

 and with larger anthers than the two lateral pairs, (sometimes one of 

 these also reduced to a staminode). Pod slightly falcate, turgid, 

 transversely septate, sutures slender, valves not depressed between the 

 30-40 small seeds, 3-4 in. long, '35 in. wide, *2 in. thick. Seeds broadly 

 ovate rather dark-brown, '24 in. long, "15 in. across, '1 in. thick. DO. 

 Prodr. II, 492 ; Roxb. Hort. Beng. 31; Wall. Cat. 5817 partly ; W. & A. 

 Prodr. 287 ; Miq. Flor. Ind. Bat. I, 92 ; Bak. in Flor. Brit. Ind. U, 262. 

 C, esculenta Roxb. Hort. Beng. 31. G. chinensis Jacq. Ic. t. 73. G. 

 frutescens Mill. Diet. n. 2. G. coromandeliana Jacq. Fragm. 67, t. 100. 

 Senna Sophera Roxb. Fl. Ind. II, 347. S. esculenta Roxb. Fl. Ind. II, 

 346. Rumph. Herb. Amboin. V, 283, t. 97, f. 1. 



Andamans ; much less common than G. occidentalis. Penang ; fide 

 Baker. Distrib. Originally American, now cosmopolitan in the tropics. 

 This species has not been sent by any Malayan botanist to the Calcutta 

 Herbarium. Its presence in Penang is however mentioned by Mr. Baker ; the 

 collector's name la not given. It was not Dr. Wallioh; Wallich's Malayan " C. 

 Sophera" (Cat. 5317 L.) is all G. occidentalis. It is strange that though this species 

 appears to have been earlier of introduction to — at all events to have been longer 

 known — in S.-E. Asia, it is now, though almost equally wide-spread, much less 

 " common" than the more recently introduced C. occidentalis. 



10. Cassia alata Linn. Sp. PI. 378. A shrub 5-8 feet high with 

 Tery thick finely downy branches ; stem often 4-5 in. thick, scarred 



161 



