THE SENNA FAMILY. 261 



olate leaflets, rounded at their apices. The flowers, however, are large and 

 most showy, two or four of them growing on axiflary, thread-hke peduncles. 

 At their bases the lower petals are somewhat spotted with purple, while the 

 stamens are all anther- bearing. The pods vary from an inch to an inch 

 and a half in length and in manner of growth is straight and ascending. 

 Along dry waysides, there is hardly in the late summer a more gay or 

 beautiful plant to be found. Its leaflets also are curious, being very sensi- 

 tive. 



C. 7iicti(ans, wild sensitive plant, or sensitive pea. is known by its small 

 flowers which grow on short pedicels, and its numerous and also snuill leaf- 

 lets. The Ave stamens are all anther bearing, while its pods and stems are 

 quite pubescent. 



C. occidi'HtiUis, coffee senna, a native of X'irginia and the states south- 

 ward, grows in a branching, bushy way to about Ave feet high. It is a 

 showy plant, distinctively marked by its large ovate-lanceolate leaflets, 

 pointed at ,the apex, and its brilliant deep orange flowers. Of their ten 

 stamens the upper three are imperfect. In the slightly curved and linear 

 pods tliere are found numerous seeds. These the negroes make into what 

 they call Magdad coffee. As late as early November, along the St. John's 

 river, I picked a number of the blossoms which still were fresh and charm- 

 ing. 



C. Tbra, low senna, springs up along river banks and seems also to 

 care to follow railways from Florida and Missouri to southern Pennsyl- 

 vania. Its large leaves are composed of from four to eight broadly obovate. 

 thin leaflets, and its long, slender pods recurve in semi-circles. It is an 

 annual with glabrous parts. 



WATER LOCUST. SWAMP LOCUST. [Plate LXX IX :) 

 Gleditsia aqudtica. 



FAMILY SHAPE HEIGHT RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Senna. Irregular, Jl,xt-toJ>ped \o-(>o Jcft. Fiorida to South Carolina May,/ it n, 



croivn. ana' Indiana. 



Bark: recldish-ljrown or grey, fissured, Sf^iiies : compressed ; very stout, 

 sometimes with short lateral branches, smooth and lustrous. Lenvcs : with long 

 petioles, once or twice abruptly piiuiate and having from ten to twenty-si.x, or 

 more very short stalked leaflets, which are ovate-lanceolate, blunt at tiie apex, 

 mostly rounded and one sided at the base ; crenulate ; thick; glabrous. F/iKccrs: 

 small; greenish white; growing in spike-like, drooping racemes. Cdyx : cam- 

 panulate: three to five cleft, pubescent. Corolln : with as many divisions as the 

 calyx, the lobes spreading, equal and sessile. Stiuncns: six to ten. Lci^um^s : 

 reddish ; obliquely oval \ flat, tapering at both ends and projecting a point, 

 glabrous, containing one seed. 



The water locust which was first described by Mark Catesby is only seen 



