NAT. ORDER. 
Lomentacece. 
CASSIA ELONGATA. PERUVIAN SENNA. 
Class X. Decandria. Order 1. Monogynia. 
Gen. Char. Calyx four and five-cleft. Petals five. The three 
superior Anthers sterile ; the three inferior beaked. 
Spe. Char. Leaflets from four to six pairs, sub-ovate. Petioles 
without glands. 
The root is annual ; the stalks are strong w^oody, rough, veined, 
branched, erect, and rise from two to three feet in height; the 
leaves are split about one-fourth of their length from the point, 
and stand on long petioles, irregularly placed upon the stalk and 
branches ; the Jlowers are of a delicate changeable red, and placed 
upon long peduncles ; the corolla is composed of five petals, which 
are roundish, long, entire, and of unequal size ; the filaments are 
ten ; the seeds are brown, roundish, flat, and produced in a long round- 
ish pod, divided by transverse partitions ; the fiowers appear in July 
and August. 
This most beautiful plant is said to be a native of Peru, where 
it is cultivated chiefly for medicinal uses. Its properties are the 
same as those of the Alexandria Senna, although not as powerful, 
yet equally valuable as a medicine. The plants which yield senna, 
belong to the genus cassia, of which a large number of species 
contribute to furnish the drug as found in our shops. These were 
confounded together by Linnaeus as one species, which he named 
Cassia Senna. Since his time the subject has been more thoroughly 
investigated by able botanists, who have discovered a variety of 
Vol. ii.-Q" 
