322 TlMEHRI. 



will be a convenient place to notice some other con- 

 spicuous yellow pod-bearing plants which will be easily 

 recognised as true leguminosae by their pods and pinnate 

 leaves, resembling some of the species described, although 

 their flowers are not of the pea-flower shape. 



The akasee is a slender shrub with round stalked heads 

 of little yellow flowers, not unlike those of the water 

 shame plant, prettily pinnate leaves, not sensitive to a 

 touch, but soon closing up when gathered, and a pair 

 of spiny prickles opposite each leaf-stalk along the stems. 

 It may be seen on the Lamaha dam. opposite the Cricket 

 Ground, and in many other places. No plant could 

 have more contradictory popular names than this ; akasee 

 no doubt represents acacie, the plant being Acacia 

 Farnesiana ; but it is also called sweet-briar from its 

 sweet-scented flowers, from which a favourite perfume 

 is extracted in India ; on the other hand the roots and 

 woody steins have a strong and disagreeable odour when 

 bruised or cut, which has gained the plant the gruesome 

 name of deadman's flesh. The juice of the roots is 

 said to be a strong poison, but the scraped pods are 

 good for toothache — whence it is sometimes called tooth- 

 ache tree — and their gummy juice for mending china. 

 The juice from the stems is too fluid to serve as gum 

 arabic, which is obtained from a very similar eastern 

 Acacia, which may be found among the trees planted 

 along Croal Street. 



The wild cassias we shall meet with are shrubs or small 

 trees with showy yellow flowers, pinnate leaves and vari- 

 ously shaped pods that turn black as they ripen. Perhaps 

 the most conspicuous is the carrion-crow bush, or iohnny- 

 crow bush (Cassia reticulata) , common as a more or less 



