456 
XLIir. LEGUMINOS^R. 
|" ( y assia. 
lines long. Hab.: Kamerunga, Barron River, K. Cowley.— Dr. G. E. Rutnphius, in Herbarium 
Amboinensis, vol. ii. 88, seems to think the tree might be called “ The Old Man’s Consolation 
Tree, ’ for, although it is not known to possess medicinal properties, yet the long tough flexible 
pods have a use, for the old men beat their backs with them, to keep their backs from becoming 
stiff — Wood of a golden-brown colour, close-grained, and would be likely to resist attack of white 
ants on account of its intense bitterness ; valuable wood for building and cabinet-work. Bailey’s 
Cat. Ql. IVoods No. 124b. 
Var. Marksiana (after Hon. C. F. Marks), Bail. Ql. Agri. Journ. i. part 1. An erect 
tree of 50 or 60ft. , trunk 12 or more inches in diameter ; branchlets dark-coloured, fluted. 
Leaves 8 or 9in. long, bearing about 7 or 8 pairs of leaflets, glabrous except for a slight tomentum 
upon the rhachis ; leaflets from nearly lanceolate to oblong-ovate, 1 to 3 Jin. long, shortly 
petiolulate ; the leaves nearest to the flower racemes often of only 3 leaflets. Racemes terminal 
on the branchlets, about 3in. long. Flowers crowded, on slender pedicels ; bracts minute. 
Sepals oblong, 3 lines long, pubescent on the back. Petals yellow, 5 or 6 lines long, obtuse, 
tapering to the base, marked by a dark central and distant lateral veins. Stamens of the normal 
form. Pod about 1ft. long, 5 lines broad, nearly terete, dark glossy-brown, and marked with 
transverse ribs between the seeds. Hab.: Upper Nerang Creek. Foliage and wood, F. M. 
Bailey, 1886. Flowers, pod, and leaf, Hon. C. F. Marks, M.D.. Dec. 1896.— I saw trees of 
this form growing at the above locality when collecting timbers for the Colonial and Indian 
Exhibition in 1886, but could not then obtain flowers or pods, and thinking that the distinction 
in foliage might be due to situation, had a log worked up, and gave it in the catalogue as var. 
tomentella. — Wood pinkish, close-grained, and tough. Bailey's Cat Ql. I Voocls No. 124a. 
Var. tomentella, Benth. FI. Austr. ii. 282. Bean-tree of Obum Obum. An erect, slender- 
stemmed tree, 20 or 30ft. high ; the branches, under side of the leaflets, and inflorescence 
minutely hoary-tomentose. Leaflets short, broad, almost orbicular, shining on the face, very 
dark-green. Flowers rather small. Pod cylindrical, 1 to 2ft. long, Jin. diameter, bright reddish- 
brown. Hab.: Hill scrubs about Obum Obum. 
The seeds of this and some other species of Fistula and Chamajistula appear to be flattened 
at right angles to the embryo, which, as in the other sections of Cassia, lies thus parallel to 
thd valves. In others, such as the African C. yoratensis, I have seen the cotyledons so folded 
as to have no particular relative position, but I have as yet been able to examine but very few 
perfect seeds in either of these sections. — Benth. 
2. *C. OCCidentalis (western species), Linn. Spec. PI. 539; Benth. in Trans. 
Linn. Soc. 27 p. 532. Stem firmly herbaceous or woody below, annual or of two 
or three years’ duration, erect, often forming dense bushy masses, a few feet in 
height, glabrous or nearly so. Leaflets membranous, 4 to 5 pairs, ovate or 
elliptical-lanceolate, usually acute or acuminate, glabrous, minutely ciliolate or 
absolutely pubescent beneath, 1J to 2Jin. long, the upper varying to 3 or 4in.; 
common petiole without interpetiolular glands, but with a short obtuse gland near 
the base, black when dry. Stipules lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, membranous, 
deciduous. Flowers in short few-flowered axillary racemes or fascicles, the 
peduncle and pedicels seldom exceeding lin., or towards the ends of the branches, 
the fascicles confluent, forming an interrupted terminal raceme; the leaves reduced 
or bract-like. Bracts thin, linear-lanceolate or oblong, acuminate, deciduous. 
Sepals obtuse, glabrous or nearly so, the outer rather shorter. Petals obtuse, 
venose. Two anterior stamens larger, with slightly curved anthers Jin. long, 
shortly and broadly produced at the apex. Legume 2-valved, linear compressed, 
slightly falcate or straight, apiculate, rather coriaceous, margined with straight 
sutures, 3J to 5in. long, 3 or 4 lines broad ; the pericarp when dry usually 
depressed between the seeds, which are usually but not always flattened in the 
same plane as the pod. Cotyledons plane or nearly so, in the larger diameter of 
the seeds, enclosed between thick layers of album, en. — Oliver FI. Trop. Afr. ii. 
274. 
Hab.: Endeavour River, near Cooktown, Boht. M'Dougall, who sent it to Brisbane as a 
suspected poison herb. 
This plant is probably of American origin, but now common in tropical America, Asia, Africa, 
and seems naturalised also in Queensland. Dr. Lindley, Flora Medica, 261, says “ The root 
greatly stimulates the lymphatic system, and is, therefore, very beneficial in obstructions and 
weakness of the stomach and incipient dropsy, against which disease it is used as a diuretic.” 
