FOLIA SENNyE. 217 



puberulous or at length glabrous, pale or subglaucous at least beneath, 

 subsessile. Stipules subulate, spreading or reflexed, 1-2 lines long. 

 Racemes axilliary, erect, rather laxly many-flowered, usually consider- 

 ably exceeding the subtending leaf. Bracts membranous, ovate or 

 obovate, caducous. Pedicels at length 2-3 lines. Sepals obtuse, mem- 

 branous. Two of the anterior anthers much exceeding the rest of the 

 fertile stamens. Legume flat, very broadly oblong, but slightly curved 

 upwards, obliquely stipitate, broadly rounded at the extremity with a 

 minute or obsolete mucro indicating the position of the style on the 

 upper edge; l|-2^ inches long, |-1 inch broad; valves chartaceous, 

 obsoletely or thinly puberulous, faintly transverse-veined, unappendaged. 

 Seeds obovate-cuneate, compressed ; cotyledons plane, extending the 

 large diameter of the seed in transverse section.^ 



The plant is a native of many districts of Nubia (as Sukkot, Mahas, 

 Dongola, Berber), Kordofan and Sennaar ; grows also in Timbuktu and 

 Sokoto, and is the source of Alexandrian Senna. 



2. C. augustifolia Vahl" — This species is closely related to the 

 preceding, the general description of which is applicable to it with the 

 following exceptions. In the present plant the leaflets, which are 

 usually 5-8-jugate, are narrower, being oval-lanceolate, tapering from 

 the middle towards the apex ; they are larger, being from one to nearly 

 2 inches long, and are either quite glabrous or furnished with a very 

 scanty pubescence. The legume is narrower (7-8 lines broad), with the 

 base of the style distinctly prominent on its upper edge. 



The plant abounds in Yemen and Hadramaut in Southern Arabia ; 

 it is also found on the Somali coast, in Sind and the Punjab. In 

 some parts of India it is now cultivated for medicinal use. 



The uncultivated plant of Arabia supplies the so-called Bombay 

 Senna of commerce, the true Senna Mekhi of the East. The cultivated 

 and more luxuriant plant, raised originally from Arabian seeds, furnishes 

 the Tinnevelly Senna of the drug market. 



History — According to the elaborate researches of Carl Martius,' a 

 knowledge of senna cannot be traced back earlier than the time of the 

 Elder Serapion, who flourished in the 9th or 10th century; and it is in 

 fact to the Arabian physicians that the introduction of the drug to 

 Western Europe is due. Isaac Judseus,* who wrote probably about A.D. 

 850-900 and who was a native of Egypt, mentions senna, the best kind 

 of which he says is that brought from Mecca. 



Senna (as Ssinen or Ssenen) is enumerated among the commodities 

 liable to duty at Acre in Palestine at the close of the 12th century.* 

 In France in 1542, a pound of senna was valued in an official tarifl"^ at 

 15 sols, the same price as pepper or ginger. 



The Arabian and the mediaeval physicians of Europe used both the 

 pods and leaves, preferring however the former. The pods {Folliculi 

 Sennce) are still employed in some countries. 



^ We borrow the above description from "♦ Opera Omnia, Lugd. 1515, Ub. 2. Pi-ac- 



Prof. Oliver. tices, c. 39, 



* Synonyms— C. lanceolata Eoxb. ; C. ^ Jiecueil des Historiens des Croisadm, 

 elongata Lem. Lis.; Senna officinalis 'Rosh.; Lois, ii. (1843) 177. 



S. anf/usti/olia Batka. s Fontanon, Edicts et Ordonnances des 



* Versuch einer Alonoifraphie der Sennes- Boys de France, ed. 2, ii. (1585) 349. 

 hldtie,; Leipz. 1867. 



