BLADDER SENNA. 139 



four or five pairs of oval heart-shaped lobes, 

 placed opposite, and terminated by an odd 

 one. 



Children find amusement in dancing on, 

 or pressing these little bladders between their 

 fingers, which make a considerable explosion 

 as the air escapes ; hence the French name 

 this shrub Baguenaudier, " fruit dans des 

 vessies rougeatres qu'on fait claquer par la 

 pression pour baguenauder, d'ou son nom."* 



The Hortus Kewensis states from Lobel, 

 that this plant was first cultivated in England 

 in 1570, but on referring to the third part of 

 Turner's Herbal, which was printed in 1568, 

 we find that it was then common in this coun- 

 try. This author says, " There hath bene a 

 greate errour of late yeares amonges many 

 men, whiche haue thought that sene had ben 

 a tre, which groweth in manye places of 

 Englande." He then describes the true 

 senna, and adds, " The tre that they call sene 

 in England is colutea." 



Gerard says, in his History of Plants of 

 1597, " Colutea, and sene, be so neere the one 

 vnto other in shape and shew, that the vn- 

 skilful herbarists haue deemed colutea to be the 

 right sene." He adds, " Colutea^ or bastard 



* Pirolle. 



