138 . MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



pulae; each leaf is composed of several pairs of oval or elliptical point- 

 ed nerved sessile pinnae, of a yellowish green colour : the flowers are 

 yellow, and produced successively in long axillary spikes : the calyx 

 consist of five leatits, which are narrow, obtuse, concave, unequal, 

 and deciduous : the corolla is composed of five petals, which are 

 roundish, concave, entire, and of unequal size: the filaments are ten, 

 of which the three undermost are longer than the others, and fur- 

 nished with large beaked curved antheras; the germen stands upon 

 a short pedicle, and is long, compressed, and supplied with a short 

 style, which is turned inwards, and terminated by an obtuse stigma: 

 the seeds are brown, roundish, fiat, and produced in a short com- 

 pressed curved pod, divided by transverse partitions. The flowers 

 appear in July and August. 



Senna is a native of Egypt : it also grows in some parts of Arabia, 

 especially about Mocha ; but as Alexandria has ever been the great 

 mart from which it has been exported into Europe, it has long been 

 distinguished by the name of Alexandria Senna, or Sena. Mons. 

 Blondel, who was French Consul at several sea ports of the Levant, 

 informs us, that the true senna grows only in the woods of Ethiopia 

 and in Arabia ; for that the senna, which was brought from Saide 

 and Tripoli was carried there by the caravans, and the negative tes- 

 timony of Alpinus, who in his Lib. de plantis JEgypti does not notice 

 senna, may seem to strengthen this opinion. But as Hasselquist 

 found this plant growing spontaneously in Upper Egypt, the asser- 

 tion of Mr. Blondel is not to be implicitly received. 



The Senna Italica, or blunt- leaved senna, is a variety of the Alex- 

 andrian species, which by its cultivation in the south of France, 

 (Provence) has been found to assume this change; it is less purga- 

 tive than the pointed-leaved senna, and is therefore to be given in 

 larger doses ; it was employed as a cathartic by Dr. Wright at Ja- 

 maica, where it grows on the sand banks near the sea. 



Senna appears to have been cultivated in England in the time of 

 Parkinson (10*40) ; and Miller tells us, that by keeping these plants 

 in a hot-bed all the summer, he frequently had them in flower, but 

 adds, it is very rarely that they perfect their seeds in England. 

 1 here can be little doubt however but that some of the British pos- 

 sessions may be found well enough adapted to the growth of this ve- 

 getable, and that the patriotic views of the Society for encouraging 



