FRUCTUS CASSIiE FISTULA 223 



by a narrow line. If the legiirae is curved, the ventral suture commonly 

 occupies its inner or concave side. The valves of the pods are marked 

 by slight transverse depressions (more evident in small specimens) 

 corresponding to the internal divisions, and also by inconspicuous 

 transveree veins. 



Each of the 25 to 100 seeds which a legume contains, is lodged in a 

 cell formed by very thin woody dissepiments. The oval, flattish seed 

 from Y%^ to ^ of an inch long, of a reddish- brown colour, contains a 

 large embryo whose yellowish veined cotyledons cross diagonally, as 

 seen on tranverse section, the horny white albumen. One side is 

 marked by a dark line (the raphe). A very slender funicle attaches the 

 seed to the ventral suture. 



In addition to the seeds, the cells contain a soft saccharine pulp 

 which in the recent state fills them up, but in the imported pods appears 

 only as a thin layer, spread over the septum, of a dark viscid substance 

 of mawkish sweet taste. It is this pulp which is made use of in 

 pharmacy. 



Microscopic Structure — The bands above described running 

 along the whole pod, are made up of strong fibro-vascular bundles mixed 

 with sclerenchymatous tissue. The valves consist of parenchymatous 

 cells, and the whole pod is coated with an epidermis exhibiting small 

 tabular cells, which are filled with dark granules of tannic matter. A 

 few stomata are also met with. The thin brittle septa of the pod are 

 composed of long ligneous cells, enclosing here and there crystals of 

 oxalate of calcium. 



The pulp itself, examined under water, is seen to consist of loose 

 cells, not forming a coherent tissue. They enclose chiefly granules of 

 albuminoid matters and stellate crystals of oxalate of calcium. The 

 cell wall assumes, on addition of iodine, a blue hue if they have been 

 previously washed by potash lye. The seeds are devoid of starch, but 

 yield a copious amount of thick mucilage, which surrounds them like a 

 halo if they are macerated in water. 



Chemical Composition — No peculiar principle is known to exist 

 either in the woody or the pulpy portion of cassia fistula. The pulp 

 contains sugar in addition to the commonlv occurring bodies noticed in 

 the previous section. 



Uses — The pulp separated from the woody part of the pods by 

 crushing the latter, digesting them in hot water, and evaporating the 

 strained liquor, is a mild laxative in common domestic use in the 

 South of Europe,^ but in England scarcely ever now administered except 

 in the form of the well-known Lenitive Electuary (Confectio sennce) of 

 which it is an ingredient. 



Commerce — Cassia fistula is shipped to England from the East and 

 West Indies, but chiefly from the latter. The pulp per se has been 

 occasionally imported, but it should never be employed when the 

 legumes for preparing it can be obtained. 



Substitutes — The pods of some other species of Cassia share the 

 structure above described and have been sometimes imported. 



1 Thus there were imported into Leg- and Tamarinds. — Cotimilar Re.porUt, 1873, 

 horn in 1871, 103 tons of Cassia Fl<<tula part i. 



