L60 ONTBIBUTIONS FROM 111!. NATIONAL BEBBABIUM. 



Near Bayamon; near Cabo Rojo around Hacienda Cannelita; near llayagui 

 the fortress. Bahama Hitchcock . Cul bach . Jamaica, Haiti, St. Thomas, 



St. Croix i Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Vincent, Bequia Kew Bull. ao. Bl, 



p. 249 , Barbados, Grenada, Tobago, Trinidad. Tropical and subtropical America, 

 Asia, Africa, and Australia, generally common in cultivated and waste places; in the 

 United States extending as Ear north as Virginia, Indiana, and Arkansas. 



This plant is striking <>n account of its narrow linear curved Legumes, which are 

 oblong-quadrate in section. The young Leaves, in spite of their disagreeable odor, 

 are used as a vegetable, while both the Leaves and seeds constitute a valuable remedy 

 in >kin diseases. The seeds when roasted and ground arc said to yield a decoction 

 which i- reported to be in every respect as good as coffee. 



Local name, dormirfi ra. 



9. Cassia alata I.." 



1 rban, 2 



An erect glabrous or subglabrous shrub, 2 to I meters high; leaves 30 to 60 or 90 

 cm. long, rachis acutely margined above when dry, glancjular, with a prominent trans- 

 ridge connecting the opposite Leaflets; Leaflets 9 to L2-jugate, upper Larger Leaflets 

 obovate-elliptical, 7.5 to L7.5 cm. long, firmly membranous; Bowers liu r ln yellow, in 

 axillary or terminal racemes; sepals 1 cm. long; petals obovate, L.5 to L.9 cm. Long, 

 the daw 2 to :') mm. long; legume 2-valved, coriaceous, L2.5 to 15 cm. Long, I to 2 cm. 

 wide, each valve with a very prominent crenate Longitudinal wing extending its 

 entire length and incurved toward the ventral suture. 



Wild and cultivated, near Bayamon, in gardens; near Coamo, in the valley of El 

 Puerte River; near Maricao, on the hank of the river near Mayaguez. < !uba, Jamaica, 

 Haiti, St. Thomas (Grisebach I, St. John. St. Croix i Eggers), Guadeloupe, Martinique, 

 St. Vincent, Grenada. Widely spread in the Tropics of both hemispheres, though 

 probably indigenous only in America. 



This is the only Cassia species in Porto Rico in which the legume is winged. The 

 Large Leaflets connected by a transverse ridge make it easily recognized. Prom the 

 Leaves, especially in Java and South America, is made a remedy used in skin di 

 and they were formerly officinal under the name of folia cassiae herpetica. 



Local names, talantala, talantro. 



10. Cassia polyphylla Jacq. 

 (Urban, 274.) 



Shrul) 2 to i meters high or tree L5 meters high; leaflets 5 to L5-jugate (often L0tol2- 

 jUgate), minute, 4.5 to (',.:> mm. Long, :'. to 1 mm. wide: flowers solitary in the axil- of 

 the leaves; sepals 7 mm. long; petals 1.7 cm. long; pedicels L.5 t" 2 cm. Long, 

 slender; Legume L5 cm. long. 



Near Guayama; near Coamo. at Sati Qdefonso and on the declivities Bf Mount 

 Santana; along roads between Aibonito and Coamo; near Ponce, at Pefion; near Juana 

 Diaz, ai Escalabrado; near Guanica, in littoral thickets; near Salinas de Cabo Rojo, 

 in the seashore woods of Mount Juliana. Haiti, St. Thomas, St. Croix. Tropical 

 America. 



This differs from all the other Porto Rico < lassia species in its small fasciculate leaves 

 and it- minute Leaflets. 



1 1. Cassia emarg-inata L. 



CTrban, 274.) 



Shrub '■'> to lo or tree L5 meter- high; Leaflets i' to ii cm. Long, L.5 to :! cm. wide; 

 (lower- golden yellow, in racemes which are solitary or fasciculate in the axils of the 



a For illustration sou Cook and Collins, pi. 3'J, facing p. 15 ( J (as Herpetica (data). 



