FABACEJE, OR LEGUMINOS^. 



and axillary, erect ; branches subdivided, spreading, angular, brownish 

 purple, covered with ferruginous down ; pedicels very short, 1-flowered, 

 numerous, crowded. Flowers reddish-lilac. Calyx turbinate-campa- 

 nulate, covered with ferruginous down. Standard and wings unguicu- 

 late ; keel composed of 2 petals, smaller than the standard. Stamens 

 purple. Ovary stipitate : style subulate, curved : stigma simple. Le- 

 gume size of a large plum. Bark anthelmintic ; it has a disagreeable 

 smell and a sweet mucilaginous taste. Its effects are drastic, emetic, 

 purgative and narcotic ; poisonous in large doses, producing violent 

 vomiting with fever and delirium. 



534. A. retusa HBK. and DC. 1. c. from Cayenne, has similar 

 properties. 



CASSIA. 



Sepals 5, combined at the base, more or less unequal. Pe- 

 tals 5, more or less unequal. Stamens 10, distinct ; the 3 upper 

 rarely fertile, usually with anthers of a different shape from the 

 others and abortive ; very rarely only 47, and all fertile : an- 

 thers dehiscing at the apex by 2 pores or clefts. Ovary stalked. 

 Legume compressed, many-seeded. Trees, shrubs, or herba- 

 ceous plants. Leaves simply and abruptly pinnated; leaflets 

 opposite. Petioles often bearing glands. 



535. C. elongata Lemaire Lisanc. Journ. pharm. vii. 345. 

 C. lanceolata Royle illustr. t. 37. W. and A. i. 288. Wallich 

 in Madras Journ, Ap. 1837. p. 354. Interior of India Roxb. ; 

 perhaps only naturalised, W. and A. 



An annual, but with care, it may be made to live through the year, 

 and to assume a suffruticose habit. Stem erect, smooth. Leaves 

 narrow, equally pinnated; leaflets 48 pairs, lanceolate, nearly sessile, 

 slightly mucronulate, smooth above, rather downy beneath, with the 

 veins turning inwards and forming a flexuose intramarginal line ; 

 petioles without glands ; stipules softly spinescent, semihastate, spread- 

 ing, minute. Racemes axillary and terminal, erect, stalked, rather 

 longer than the leaves ; pedicels without bracts. Sepals linear, obtuse. 

 Petals bright yellow. Of the stamens the 5 lowest sterile and small, 

 the 2 next large, curved and perfect, the 3 uppermost minute and 

 gland-like. Ovary linear, downy, falcate, with a smooth recurved style. 

 Legumes pendulous, oblong, membranous, about 1 inch long, and f- 

 broad, quite straight, tapering abruptly to the base, and rounded at the 

 apex, deep brown, many-seeded. The dried leaves form the finest 

 senna of commerce, known by the name of Tinnevelly senna. In the 

 great uncertainty that exists concerning the species from which the 

 acute-leaved sennas are obtained, I take this as the type, partly because 

 I happen to have pretty good specimens for description, and partly 

 because it is possibly the same as the common acute-leaved senna of 

 Alexandria, altered by climate. I cannot think it the C. lanceolata of 

 Forskahl, because it wants the gland upon the petiole of that species, a 

 character of great importance in this genus. It is more probable that 

 this is the " Senna Meccae Lohaiae foliis 5-7-jugis lineari-lanceolatis" 

 of Forskahl; which if so will account for its having been raised in 

 India from Mecca senna seeds. 



258 



