592 MR. G. BENTHAM—REVISION OF THE GENUS CASSIA. 
69. C. OCCIDENTALIS, Linn. ! Spec. Pl. 539. Herba fœtens, sepe elata, annua (rarius 
perennis v. suffrutex ?). Foliola 4-6-juga, ovato-lanceolata v. lanceolata, acuta v. acu- 
minata, glabra, subciliata. Racemi axillares, breves, summi conferti. Legumen 3-5 poll. 
longum, 244 lin. latum, maturum crasso-compressum, late marginatum.— Fl. Bras. 112. 
C. occidentalis, Bot. Reg. t. 83; Vell. Fl. Flum. Ic. iv. t. 66. 
Senna occidentalis, Roxb. ! Fl. Ind. ii. 343. 
Cassia falcata, Linn. ! Spec. Pl. 539. 
C. planisiliqua, Linn. Spec. Pl. 540, ex parte. 
C. longisiliqua, Linn. f. Suppl. 230; DC.! Prod. ii. 497. 
C. fetida, Pers. Syn. i. 457 (sub C. occidentale) ; Roxb.! herb. olim. 
C. geminiflora, Schrank, Hort. Monac. t. 26, fide DC. 
C. obliquifolia, Schrank. in Denkschr. Bot. Ges. Regensb. ii. 40, ex char. 
C. linearis, Mich. Fl. Bor. Amer. i. 261. 
C. caroliniana, Walt. Fl. Carol. 134. 
C. ciliata, Raf. Fl. Ludov. ex Torr. et Gr. 
Hab. Tropical America, Asia, and Africa; very abundant in waste and cultivated 
places: probably of American origin, and not yet received from Australia. 
The foliage and inflorescence of this species are generally nearly those of C. levigata, except as to the 
gland, which is always below the lowest pair of leaflets, and usually very near the base of the petiole, not 
between the leaflets. The pod, when ripe and in a good state, is longer, narrower, more flattened and 
incurved than in C. Sophera, and, when young, very flat; it is then like those of C. ligustrina and C. 
Marylandica; but it thickens as it ripens, and the seeds, at least in the lower part of the pod, become 
more or less flattened and parallel with the transverse septa; in the upper part they are sometimes 
flattened in the contrary direction (parallel with the valves), as in C. ligustrina. But herbarium speci- 
mens are not unfrequent which, from their imperfect state, appear quite ambiguous between these species 
as to the fruit, and must be classed according to the still more uncertain characters of foliage and habit. 
C. planisiliqua, Linn., has been referred here in the * Botanical Register, followed by others, on the 
authority of a determination in the Banksian herbarium, whilst C. planisiliqua, Lam. Dict. i. 645, has 
been supposed to be a different plant, to which De Candolle gave the name of C. Plumieri, and which has 
been referred by Grisebach to C. glauca. The fact is that the Linnæan and the Lamarckian supposed 
species are identical, Lamarck having merely copied Linnzeus’s diagnosis, which applies to C. occidentalis, 
and translated Plumier's description, which Linnæus had copied, both referring to Plumier's plate, ed. 
Burm.t.77. What the latter represents it is impossible to determine, but certainly neither C. occidentalis 
nor C. glauca. The leaves are those of C. Fistula, the flowers quite unintelligible, the fruit more like that 
of the section Fistula than of any other, described as flat, whence the name, but figured as nearly terete, 
and filled with a series of unintelligihle circles, described as ossicles or seeds, but more likely to be the 
transverse septa of the Fistula section, as they overlap each other. The whole species must therefore be 
passed over as an inexplicable puzzle, founded on the diagnosis of one species, with the representation of 
another cooked up by an inaccurate artist, and encumbered by the description of the fruit of a third 
species. The plant representing C. planisiliqua in the Linnzan herbarium is C. siamea, which is cer- 
tainly not the one from which he took his diagnosis. | = 
70. C. Sopxera, Linn. Spec. Pl. 542 (non herb. Linn.). Frutex (v. suffrutex ?). Foliola 
: 5-12-juga, ovato-lanceolata v. lanceolata, acuta v. acuminata, glabra, subciliata. Racemi - 
axillares, breves, summi conferti. Legumen 2-4 poll. longum, maturum turgidum y. sub- 
teres, late marginatum, nunc obscure tetragonum. 
Senna Sophera, Roxb.! Fl. Ind. ii. 347. 
