218 LEGUMINOS^. 



Cassia obovata Coll.^ was the species first known to botanists, and it 

 was even cultivated in Italy for medicinal use during the first half of 

 the IGth century. Hence the term Italian Senna used by Gerarde 

 and others. In the records of the " Cinque savii alia mercanzia " at 

 Venice we found an order bearing date 1526 to the efiect that Senna 

 leaves of Tuscany were inadmissible ; the same was applied in 1676 to 

 the drug from Tripoli in Barbaria, that from Cairo being exclusively 

 permitted. 



Production — According to Nectoux,^ whose observations relate to 

 Nubia at the close of the last century, the peasants make two senna 

 harvests annually, the first and more abundant being at the termination 

 of the rains, — that is in September ; while the other, which in dry 

 seasons is almost nil, takes place in April. 



The gathering consists in simply cutting down the shrubs, and 

 exposing them on the rocks to the burning sun till completely dry. 

 The drug is then packed in bags made of palm leaves holding about a 

 quintal each, and conveyed by camels to Es-souan and Darao, whence it 

 is transported by water to Cairo. By many travellers it is stated that 

 Senna jebeli, i.e. mountain senna {G. acutifolia), finds its way to the 

 ports of Massowhah and Suakin, and thence to Cairo and Alexandria. 



Cassia obovata, which is called by the Arabs Senna baladi, i.e. indi- 

 genous or wild senna, grows in the fields of durra (Sorghum) at Karnak 

 and Luxor, and in the time of Nectoux was held in such small esteem 

 that it fetched but a quarter the price of the Senna jebeli brought 

 by the caravans of Nubia and the Bisharrin Arabs. It is not now 

 collected. 



Description — Three kinds of senna are distinguished in English 

 commerce : — 



1. Alexandrian Senna — This is furnished by Cassia acutifolia 

 and is imported in large bales. It used formerly always to arrive in a 

 very mixed and dirty state, containing, in addition to leaflets of senna, 

 a variable proportion of leafstalks and broken twigs, pods and flowers ; 

 besides which there was almost invariably an accompaniment of the 

 leaves, flowers and fruits of Solenostenima Argel Hayne (p. 220), not to 

 mention seeds, stones, dust and heterogeneous rubbish. Such a drug 

 required sifting, fanning and picking, by which most of these impurities 

 could be separated, leaving only the senna contaminated with leaves of 

 argel. But Alexandrian Senna has of late been shipped of much better 

 quality. Some we have recently seen (1872) was, as taken from the 

 original package, wholly composed of leaflets of C. acutifolia in a well- 

 preserved condition ; and even the lower qualities of senna are never 

 now contaminated with argel to the extent that was usual a few 

 years ago. 



The leaflets, the general form of which has already been described 



^ It is a glaucous slinib with obovate Sinclh and Gujerat and (naturalized) in the 



leaflets, broadly rounded and mucronulate, West Indies. Its leaflets (also pods) may 



reniform legume terminated by persistent occasionally be picked out of Alexandrian 



style, and marked along the middle of each Senna. 



valve by a series of crest-shaped ridges ^ Voyage dans la Haxde Egypte . . avec 



corresponding to the seeds. It is more des observations sur les diverses esptces de 



widely distributed in the Nile region than S4)i^ qui sont repandues dans le commerce, 



the other species, and is also found in Paris, 1808. fol. 



