76 Select Plants for Industrial Culture 



Cassia angnstifolia, Vahl. 



Northern and Tropical Africa and South- Western Asia, indigenous 

 or cultivated. Perennial. Yields Mecca-senna, also the Bombay- 

 and some of the Tinnevelly-senna. 



Cassia artemisioides, Gaudichaud. 



Sub-tropical and extra-tropical Australia. The species of this 

 series are shrubby and considered valuable for arid and sandy sheep- 

 runs as affording feed. They brave intense heat, and are adapted for 

 rainless regions. 



Cassia fistula, Linn<$. 



Southern Asia. The long pods of this ornamental tree contain an 

 aperient pulp of pleasant taste and of medicinal value. It is also used 

 in the manufacture of cake-tobacco. Traced by Sir Jos. Hooker to 

 the dry slopes of the Central Himalayas. 



Cassia Marilandica, Linn6 



An indigenous Senna-plant of the South-Eastern United States of 

 North-America. Perennial. 



Cassia obovata, Colladon. 



South- Western Asia; widely dispersed through Africa as a native or 

 disseminated plant. Perennial. Part of the Alexandrian Senna and 

 also Aleppo-senna is derived from this plant; less esteemed and less 

 collected than the other species. It furnishes also Tripolis, Italian,. 

 Senegal and Tanacca Senna. 



Castanea sativa, Miller.* (G.^vulgaris, Lamarck; C. vesca, Gaertner.) 



The Sweet Chestnut-tree. South-Europe and Temperate Asia, as- 

 far as Japan; a variety with smaller fruit extending to North- 

 America. Professor Schuebeler records, that even in Norway at 

 latitude 58 15' a chestnut-tree attained a height of 33 feet with a 

 stem 4 feet in circumference; in a shrubby state it is found as far 

 north as 63. It reaches an enormous age; at Mount Etna a tree 

 occurs with a stem 204 feet in circumference. At other places trees 

 are found 10 feet in diameter, solid to the centre. The tree does not 

 readily admit of transplantation. The wood is light, cross-grained, 

 strong, elastic and exceedingly durable, well adapted for staves and 

 wheel-cogs, the young wood for hoops and mast-rings. The wood is 

 comparatively rich in tannic acid (about 4 to 6 per cent.), and hence 

 used for preparing a liquid extract; the bark contains 12 per cent- 

 tannin (Wiesner). The leaves furnish food for the Bombyx Jamamai 

 (Dupont). The greatest importance of the tree rests on its adapta- 

 bility for shade-plantations, its nutritious nuts and timber-value. The 

 American wood is slightly lighter in color than that of the Red Oak, 

 and available for shingles and rails; chestnut-rails in North-America 

 have lasted for half a century. The wood is beautifully laminated 

 (Simmonds), and largely employed for furniture, for the inside finish 

 of railroad-cars and steamboats (Vasey). The American nuts are- 



