242 PLANTS GROWING IN SANDY SOIL. 



numerous seeds. Leaves: short; lanceolate^,; almost sessile with arrow-shaped 

 stipules at the base. Stem : erect ; much branched and beset with dull 

 bristles. 



After the seeds have ripened and become detached, the pods 

 of this plant make very cunning little rattles, as every country 

 child knows ; and this fact is referred to in its common and 

 Greek names. Unfortunately, the seeds and leaves contain a 

 poisonous substance which causes animals that eat of them to 

 slowly decline in vigour. 



C. rotundifolia is a prostrate species that is well known in 

 parts of the, south from Virginia to Mississippi. It favours a 

 dryer soil than the above plant. Its seed pods are very simi- 

 lar. 



WILD SENNA. {Plate CXXV) 



Cassia Marildndica. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Senna. Yellow. Scentless. New England southward J^iy- 



and westward. 



Flowers: growing in racemes on slender axillary peduncles. Calyx: of five 

 almost separate sepals. Corolla : of five nearly equal petals, two of which are 

 dotted with reddish purple at the base. Stamens : ten ; anthers, irregular, 

 blackish and often imperfect. Pods: long; hairy. Leaves: pinnate; divided 

 into six to nine narrowly oblong leaflets tipped with a little point at the top and 

 having a club-shaped gland at the base of the petiole. Stem: four to ten feet 

 high ; smooth. 



If there are rebels among the flowers the wild senna surely is 

 one ; for it has, apparently without rhyme or reason, deserted the 

 papilionaceous corolla of the pulse family to which it formerly 

 belonged. It is a common species in the north : and for its 

 beauty has been cultivated in gardens. The dried leaves and 

 pods are well known in medicine, being used for similar pur- 

 poses as those for which the oriental senna is employed. Wild 

 senna is found much more frequently in wet meadows or 

 marshes than it is in sandy soil. 



