1897.] D. Prain — Some additional Legumiuosae. 475 



7. Cassia Tor a Linn. 



As defined in the F. B. I. this name covers two very distinct 

 species : — 1. Cassia Tora, with leaves glaucous or glaucesent beneath, 

 very foetid; with short pedicels and smaller flowers, the pedicels in 

 fruit not exceeding '35 in. ; and with two glands on the leaf-rachis, 

 one between each of the two lower pairs of leaflets. 



2. Cassia obtusifolia Linn. (C. toroides Roxb.) with leaves green 

 beneath, not foetid ; with long pedicels and much larger flowers, tho 

 pedicels even in flower reaching I in. ; and with One gland only on the 

 leaf-rachis, situated between the leaflets of the lower pair. 



C. Tora is common everywhere throughout our area ; it is a native of the Eastern 

 Hemisphere and may, as is sometimes stated, have become introduced in America ; 

 the writer has never, however, seen an American example ; all the specimens bearing 

 the name C. Tora that have been sent to Calcutta from America are C. obtusifolia. 

 C. obtusifolia is common in some parts of our area, notably in Western India from 

 Kanara northwards , in Scinde, Panjab and Rajputana, and in the Western Hima- 

 layas from Hazara to Garhwal and Dehra Dun ; there are also some specimens from 

 Behar and from Burma and it is quite common in Singapore. Elsewhere in India, 

 if it occurs at all, it is very rare. It is an American species comparatively recently 

 introduced to the Eastern Hemisphere. 



The two plants differ so constantly and so markedly in such a number of particu- 

 lars that they must be separated as species. The foetid small, strongly veined glaucous 

 leaves, and short pedicels of G. Tora always accompany the existence of 2 glands to 

 the leaf-rachis and, even on the most cursory examination, distinguish it from 

 C. obtusifolia with its green leaves less prominently nerved, its long pedicels with 

 very much larger flowers — characters always associated with the presence of but 

 one gland on the leaf-rachis. 



The confusion between the two plants goes back to Linnaeus who referred to G. 

 Tora (which he defines as having leaves with 2 glands) the plant figured by Dillenius 

 in Hort. Eltham. as t. 63, f . 73. That figure shows no glands. But Linnaeus is pro- 

 bably right in identifying it with the plant here described as G. Tora ; at all events 

 it has the strong nerves, the short pedicels and the quadrate pods of that species. 



As G. obtusifolia, Linnaeus has quoted the figure by Dillenius in Hort. Eltham. 

 t. 62, f. 72. This is likewise figured without glands, and since in diagnosing the 

 species Linnaeus omits all allusion to glands, one is tempted to suppose that the name 

 G. obtusifolia was based on this Dillenian figure. But this cannot be the case ; M. De 

 Candolle mentions having actually seen a specimen of G. obtusifolia Linn., and he 

 defines the species as having leaves with a single gland. This sets the question at 

 rest once for all, and makes it clear that so far as the plant itself is concerned, G. 

 obtusifolia Linn, is the species that was later on more fully described and more 

 accurately characterised by Roxburgh than it had been by Linnaeus, under the name 

 Senna toroides. 



All authors have agreed that the figure of Gallinaria rotundifolia Rumph., cited 

 by Linnaeus as his G. obtusifolia, is without a doubt C. Tora ; it has not been so 

 generally noted that the figure in Dillenius (t. 62, f. 72), by its very name " faitida" 

 by its pronounced nerves, and by its short pedicels would appear to differ from the 

 real G. obtusifolia and would seem to be only another form of the plant shown in 

 t. 63, f.*73, and therefore to be likewise G. Tora. In fact the only Linnean reference 

 J. ii. 60 



