A GUIDE TO THE WILD FLOWERS 129 



374. SENNA FAMILY. CAESALPINIACEAE. 



A large family of trees, shrubs and herbs, mostly tropical, 

 but a few in temperate regions. Leaves alternate, compound, 

 the leaflets usually numerous, without an odd one, lacking 

 marginal teeth in the herbs treated below. Flowers yellow, 

 not perfectly symmetrical but nearly so, having 5 petals of 

 almost, but not quite, equal size. Fruit a pea-like pod. The 

 species here treated may be distinguished thus : 

 Plants 3-5 ft. tall; leaflets stalked. 



375. American Senna. Cassia marilandica. A tall stout, 

 mostly unbranched herb, with compound leaves and yellow 

 flowers, in small clusters. Leaves composed of 12-20 leaflets, 

 the latter 1-2 in. long, hairy on the margins, and short stalked. 

 Flowers yellow, about }i in. wide. Pod about 3 in. long. In 

 moist places. Mass. to No. Carolina, Tennessee and Ohio. 



July- 



Plants 8-20 in. tall ; leaflets essentially stalkless. 



376. Sensitive Pea. Chamaecrista fasciculata. (Cassia 

 Chamaccrista.) A weak, much branched and rather sprawling 

 herb, with compound leaves, and a few yellow flowers, partly 

 hidden by the foliage. Leaflets 20-30, about ^ in. long, 

 stalkless, and slightly inequilateral. Flowers about i in. wide 

 on stalks about i in. long. Pod about 2 in. long. In dry 

 places. Mass. to Florida, and westward. August. Fig. 376. 

 A closely related species, C. nic titans, has flowers about half 

 as wide, and almost stalkless. It grows in similar situations 

 from Maine to Georgia, and westward. In both species the 

 leaflets are somewhat sensitive to the touch and to weather 

 changes. 



377. Petals or petal-like sepals 4, or less than 4. (Nos. 378- 

 409.) 



Flowers yellow no. 396 



Flowers white (rarely greenish or pinkish-white) no. 381 



Flowers neither white nor yellow 



Flowers light purple; a fleshy plant of the sand-dunes 



Sea Rocket no. 3; 8 



