THE SENNA FAMILY. 



259 



the landscape. In the south it is one of the earliest of the flowering trees, 

 while further northward it delays its bloom sometimes until April. Fre- 

 quently not a leaf is to be seen on it when the quaintly-formed, almost pea- 

 shaped little blossoms burst forth. They fairly cover in places the purplish 

 grey bark and are of two shades of deeply tinted pink. 



About our American plants, we find very frequently that it has been 

 through their similarity to European ones that the early settlers of this 

 country bestowed on them certain common names. So this beautiful plant 

 is called Judas-tree, as is the European species, Cercis siliguastrum, 

 although it could never have been the traditionary one from which the 

 Apostle is said to have hung himself. Neither has it in America been a 

 supposed favourite with witches; the chosen one to which they draw near at 

 midnight. 



WILD SENNA. AMERICAN SENNA. 



Cassia Maryldndica. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Senna. Deep yellow. Scentless. Florida and Louisiatta ful}\ A ui^ust . 



to New England. 



Floivers : growing on slender axillary peduncles in many flowered racemes. 

 Calyx-lobes : five, oblong, blunt-pointed. Corolla; nearly regular, with five spread- 

 ing, clawed petals. Sla/iiois ; ten, three being imperfect, the others witii large, up- 

 curved anthers. Pistil : one ; style woolly. Pods : long, linear, slightly curved and 

 pubescent at least when young with fine hairs. Leaves : with long petioles, at the 

 base of which is a club-shaped gland, and early-falling, linear stipules; abruptly 

 pinnate with from twelve to twenty oblong, obtuse leaflets, with short petiolules and 

 tipped at the ape.x with the midrib; entire; STuooth. A perennial herb, four to 

 ten feet high, branched; smooth, or slightly pubescent. 



How much of cheeriness there is in the autumn about the bright yellow 

 flowers of this senna, as perhaps with the tall wild bellflower, it occurs 

 amid wooded, ferny places, or even approaches the cardinal flower by some 

 low-lying swamp. In its own way, it is quite as beautiful as they, and 

 grows in certain parts of the south most abundantly. It is also much culti- 

 vated for a border plant. After its season of bloom has passed its pods and 

 leaflets are collected to be dried and then used in many similar medicinal 

 ways to those for which the oriental senna has attained renown. It is very 

 noticeable that the sensitiveness of the leaves of certain sennas causes them 

 to close whenever touched, or rudely brushed against and it was this pe- 

 culiarity of some plants which early observed by primitive people caused 

 them to believe in their being inhabited by distinct and personal spirits. 



C Chamcccrista, large sensitive plant, or partridge pea, {Ptatc LXXVIII), 

 a spreading, erect individual is considerably smaller than the wild senna and 

 bears small abruptly pinnate leaves with from ten to fifteen pairs of oblance- 



