Vol. 4 No. 12 



TORREYA 



December, 1904 



THE ami:rican sennas 



By J. A. SiiAFicR 



Several years ago, while bringing together mateiial for the for- 

 mation of a seed collection at the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh, 

 Pa., a sample of a seed purporting to be that of Cassia Mari- 

 laiidica L. was received from l^rofessor O. P. Medsger, of Jacobs 

 Creek, Pa., which differed markedly, by its obovoid form, from any 

 seed of the species that I had ever seen. Mr. Medsger, in as- 

 suring me of the authenticity of this seed, stated that he had col- 

 lected the flat- as well as the obovoid-seeded form, in Westmore- 

 land Co., Pa. With this explanation the matter rested until I 

 myself collected, on the Ohio River just below Pittsburgh, fruit- 

 ing specimens yielding the obovoid seed. About the same time, 

 also, similar specimens were sent to me from Cumberland, Md., 

 by Rev. G. Eifrig. 



Careful search the following season was unrewarded with flower- 

 ing specimens of the obovoid-seeded form, although many indi- 

 vidual plants of the flat-seeded form were observed through the 

 flowering to the fruiting stage both in their nativity and under 

 cultivation, among the latter being a white-flowered sort. This 

 failure to find the obovoid-seeded form, together with other cir- 

 cumstances, led me to surmise that' the plant is a biennial ; this, 

 however, I have not as yet been able to verify. 



In some thirty descriptions of Cassia Marilandica by about 

 twenty-five authors, the form of the seed is mentioned but four 

 times. Darlington * has them " compressed, ovate-oblong " ; 

 later t he omits "compressed" and the\' become " ovate-ob- 



* Darlington, Flora Cestrica, 432. 1837. [Kd. i.] 

 t Darlington, Flora Cestrica, 68. 1853. [Ed. 3.] 



[Vol. 4, No. II, of ToRREYA, comprising pages 161-176, was issued November 

 21, 1904. J 



177 



