. . ■ NAT. ORDER. LOMENTACEiE. 35 



Barton) appear on examination, that such situations are exsiccated 

 swamps or meadows. It delights in a low, moist, gravelly, or sandy- 

 soil, prefeiTing the borders of rivers, creeks, and such watery places, 

 to any other situations ; and flowers from the last of June to the first 

 of August. It was said to be introduced into England in the year 

 1723, by Peter Collinson, Esq., where it flowered from August till 

 October. 



The genei'ic name of this plant is of Asiatic origin, and was 

 first brought into Greece alonsf ^vith the commercial article which it 

 denoted, by the Phoenician merchants. The specific appellation was 

 given by Linnseus, in conformity with the common custom, of which 

 later discoveries have shown the impropriety; that'of naming a new 

 species of any genus, from the particular place whence it was sent to 

 him. Though the first specimens of Cassia Marilandlca were trans- 

 mitted to Linnaeus from the state of Maryland, the plant is now known 

 to be extremely common in almost every state in the Union, south and 

 west of New York. Inappropriate as the specific name is, however, 

 it still does, and always ought to, stand unchanged. 



The naturalist has often reason to lament that travelers and mer- 

 chants have given the name of one thing long known to another recent- 

 ly discovered, on account of a real or fancied resemblance in a single 

 particular, though in every other respect it has been entirely different. 

 Such has been the fate of Cassia. In the middle ages, the Arabian 

 and Greek physicians, as appears from the writings of Avicenna and 

 Myrepsus, acknowledged two kinds of Cassia ; one, Cassia aromatica, 

 a native of India, the Cassia of the ancients : — the other. Cassia solu- 

 tiva, a native of Egypt, totally different in its general appearance, bo- 

 tanical characters, and medical qualities ; and which appears to have 

 been honored with the same name as that which from time immemo- 

 rial had distinguished the precious oriental spice, merely on account of 

 its pleasant smell ; for we are informed by Alpinus, that when he was 

 in Egypt, in the latter part of the sixteenth century, the natives took 

 great delight in walking early in the morning in the spring season 



