36 
NAT. ORDER. — LOMENTACE.E. 
near plantations of this kind of Cassia, and reg-aling- themselves with 
the fragrance of its flowers. To this species, and its numerous con- 
g-eners, the term Cassia, as a generic appellation, is confined by modern 
botanists. 
It appears by the researches of Mon. Hippolite Nectoux, that botan- 
ists and writers on the Materia Medica, have hitherto been mistaken 
in supposing the true Senna of the shops to be the leaves and fallicles 
of the Cassia Senna of Linnaeus. This intelligent and industrious in- 
quirer instituted, in Egypt, a series of investigations I'especting the 
Senna, which resulted in the singular fact, that Cassia Senna of Lin- 
naeus, which had always been considered as the true Senna, is in 
reality a weed, with which the real Senna is adulterated in Egypt, to 
augment the quantity produced by the annual growth of the other two 
plants which constitute the Senna. 
Medical Proim-ties and Uses. " Wild Senna," says Barton, " is 
now known to be a valuable cathartic of the milder class. It is but 
a little, if at all inferior to the Alexandria Senna, and is doubtless one 
of the most important of our indigenous medicines. Professor Hew- 
son, of Philadelphia, informed me that he had used it occasionally, and 
with the same good effect as common Senna ; and I have had some 
experience with it in my own practice. At the Marine Hospital of the 
Navy-Yard, I have for some months past substituted it for Alexandria 
Senna, and frequently employed it. I have also, in a single instance, 
used it in my own family. In all these trials I have had reason to 
confirm the high character of the plant, which it has long maintained. 
The leaves alone, have in general been used ; but I have made use 
of the dried leaves follicles, carefully rejecting the leaf-stalks, and beg 
leave to recommend this manner of employing the plant for medical 
purposes. I believe the best time for collecting it would be when the 
pods are ripe, which is about the last of August. 
The affinity of Wild Senna to two of the articles which constitute 
the Senna of Commerce, renders it probable that these foreign plants 
might be cultivated without difficulty, and with great profit, in our 
