242 PLANTS GROWING IN SANDY SOIL. 



numerous seeds. Leaves: short; lanceolate,; almost sessile with arrow-shaped 

 stipules at the base. Stem: erect; much branched and beset with dull 

 bristles. 



After the seeds have ripened and become detached, the pods 

 of this plant make very cunning little rattles, as every country 

 child knows ; and this fact is referred to in its common and 

 Greek names. Unfortunately, the seeds and leaves contain a 

 poisonous substance which causes animals that eat of them to 

 slowly decline in vigour. 



C. rotundifolia is a prostrate species that is well known in 

 parts of the south from Virginia to Mississippi. It favours a 

 dryer soil than the above plant. Its seed pods are very simi- 

 lar. 



WILD SENNA. (Plate CXXV) 



Cassia Marilandica. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Senna. Yellow. Scentless. New England southward July. 



and westward. 



Flowers: growing in racemes on slender axillary peduncles. Calyx: of five 

 almost separate sepals. Corolla : of five nearly equal petals, two of which are 

 dotted with reddish purple at the base. Stamens : ten ; anthers, irregular, 

 blackish and often imperfect. Pods: long ; hairy. Leaves : pinnate; divided 

 into six to nine narrowly oblong leaflets tipped with a little point at the top and 

 having a club-shaped gland at the base of the petiole. Stem : four to ten feet 

 high ; smooth. 



If there are rebels among the flowers the wild senna surely is 

 one ; for it has, apparently without rhyme or reason, deserted the 

 papilionaceous corolla of the pulse family. It is a common 

 species in the north : and for its beauty has been cultivated in 

 gardens. The dried leaves and pods are well known in medi- 

 cine, being used for similar purposes as those for which the 

 oriental senna is employed. Wild senna is found much more 

 frequently in wet meadows or marshes than it is in sandy 

 soil, 



