140 MEDICINAL PLANTS* 



SECTION Til. 



Purgative Cassia. 



Cassia Fistula. Linn. 

 We have observed in the preceding section that this is only one 

 of the numerous species belonging to the genus Cassia. This tree 

 frequently rises forty feet in height, producing many spreading bran" 

 ches towards the top, and covered with brownish bark* intersected 

 with many cracks and furrows : the leaves are pinnated, composed 

 of four to six pairs of pinnse, which are ovate, pointed, undulated, 

 nerved, of a pale green colour, and stand upon shortish footstalks ; 

 the flowers are large, yellow, and placed in spikes upon long pe- 

 duncles : the calyx consists of five oblong blunt greenish crenulated 

 leaves: the corollas is divided into five petals, which are unequal, 

 spreading, and undulated : the filaments are ten ; of these the three 

 undermost are very long and curled inwards ; the remaining seven 

 exhibit only the large antheras, which are all rostrated, or open at 

 the end like a bird's beak : the germen is round, curved inwardly, 

 without any apparent style, and terminated by a simple stigma : the 

 fruit is a cylindrical pendulous pod, from one to two feet in length; 

 at first soft and green, afterwards it becomes brown, and lastly black 

 and shining, divided transversely into numerous cells, in each of 

 which is contained a hard round compressed seed, surrounded with 

 a black pulpy matter. The flowers appear in June and July. 



This tree, which is a native of both the Indies, and of Egypt, was 

 first cultivated in England by Mr. Philip Miller in 1 73 1. The pods 

 of the East India Cassia are of less diameter, smoother, and afford a 

 blacker, sweeter, and more grateful pulp than those which are 

 brought from the West Indies, South America, or Egypt, and are 

 universally preferred. In Egypt it is the practice to pluck the Cassia 

 pods before they arrive at a state of maturity, and to place them in 

 a house, from which the external air is excluded as much as possible; 

 the pod* are then laid in strata of half a foot in depth, between 

 which palm leaves are interposed ; the two following days the whole 

 is sprinkled with water, in order to promote its fermentation : and 

 the fruit is suffered to remain in this situation forty days, when it is 

 sufficiently prepared for keeping. 



