176 CASSIA CHAM^CRISTA. SENSITIVE PEA. 



flowers, and the hairiness or smoothness of the leaves and seed- 

 vessels. In Pennsylvania and New Jersey the plant is very 

 smooth in most cases. In Southern Illinois and Missouri the 

 more hairy forms prevail. With all allowances for variation, it is, 

 however, not probable that the colored plate No. 107, of the 

 *' Botanical Magazine," and named Cassia Chanicecrista, is really 

 this species, as the shape of the seed-vessel, uniform through all 

 the changes of other characters in our American plant, is very 

 different in that drawing, as also are some other characters. 



The family of Cassia has been celebrated through the medical 

 properties of Cassia acutifolia, known in pharmacy as the Alex- 

 andrian Senna, and It is believed that our large-flowered Sensi- 

 tive Pea partakes, in some degree, of the purging character of 

 its relative. 



Explanations of the Plate. — r. Upper portion of a Massachusetts plant. 2. The annual 

 root. 3. Seed-vessel nearly mature, from a plant growing in Pennsylvania. 



