CASSIA CHAM-AECRISTA.—SENSITIVE PEA. 175 
regions are immigrants from more southern climes, during the 
long ages past. Of the immense number that inhabit the 
American continent, less than a dozen have advanced into the 
limits of the United States; and some of these, as for instance C. 
Occidentalis, perhaps within comparatively recent periods. If, 
however, our Cassta Chamecrisia was originally tropical, it has 
become a famous traveller, for it has made itself at home in 
every part of the Union, east of the Rocky Mountains, up to 
Iowa, and Massachusetts. Prof. Porter, indeed, found it grow- 
ing near Denver, where, in all probability, it ventured since the 
advent of civilization to Colorado, and it is a good illustration of 
its travelling capacities. It will, no doubt, soon establish itself in 
that hot region, for in the East it flourishes best in dry, gravelly, 
or sandy places, showing no signs of dissatisfaction, except that 
in the middle of very hot days the leaves droop a little, recover- 
ing, however, very soon after the sun’s decline from the meridian. 
N. P. Willis, in his poem, “The Shunamite,” says, that when 
Hagar went forth with Ishmael— 
“Tt was a sultry day of summer time, 
The sun poured down upon the ripen'd grain, 
With quivering heat, and the suspended leaves 
Hung motionless.’”” 
And had this scene been laid in the United States, our Cassza 
Chamecrista would, undoubtedly, have been one to do justice to 
the poetry of that sultry day. 
The specimen from which our drawing was made is of 
Massachusetts growth, and is very much smaller than when found 
further south; but itis selected as enabling us to give a complete 
plant on one plate. In the South it is very bushy and somewhat 
trailing ; and it grows remarkably vigorous, even in poor, sandy 
soil. For this reason it has been used for sowing and ploughing 
down as a “green manure” in barren ground, and in this capacity 
has become quite famous. It varies very much in regard to the 
bushy or erect habit in different locations, and, indeed, in many 
other respects, chiefly in regard to the spots on the petals of the 
