IN EXTRA-TROPICAL COUNTRIES. 67 



the kernel is deleterious (Hernandez) ; the pulp of a delicious, 

 melting, peach-like taste (Gamier). The fruit is said to induce 

 sleep. 



Cassia acutifolia, Delile. 



Indigenous or now spontaneous, in Northern and Tropical Africa 

 and South-west Asia. Perennial. The merely dried leaflets con- 

 stitute part of the Alexandrian and also Tinnevelly senna. The 

 active principle of senna namely, cathartic acid occurs also in the 

 Coluteas and in Coronilla varia, according to C. Koch. 



Cassia angustifolia, 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 fistula, Linne. 



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

 aperient pulp of pleasant taste, of medicinal value ; also used in 

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

 the dry slopes of the Central Himalayas. 



Cassia Marylandica, Linne. 



An indigenous Senna plant of the United States of North America. 

 Perennial. 



Cassia obovata, CoUadon. 



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

 disseminated plant. Perennial. Part of the Alexandrian and also 

 Aleppo senna is derived from this species, less esteemed and less 

 collected however than the other species. It furnishes also 

 Tripolis, Italian, Senegal, and Tanacca senna. Several of the 

 Australian desert cassias of the group of C. artemisioides may also 

 possess purgative properties. The odour of their foliage is almost 

 that of senna. 



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



The Sweet Chestnut Tree. South Europe and Temperate Asia, as 

 far as Japan, and a variety with smaller fruits extending to North 

 America. It attains an enormous age ; at Mount Etna an 

 individual 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 durable, well adapted for 

 staves, 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 thus used for preparing a liquid extract ; the bark contains 



