184 
FLORA OF ADEN. 
Fruits : — January 1863 (Oliver and Cl.), March 1878 (Perry), March 
1888 (Schweinf.), April 1861 (Thomson), Dec. 1847 (Hooker). 
Locality : — Great valley between Steamer Point and town (March- 
esetti) ; without locality (Hook., Anders., Thomson, Birdw., Schweinf., 
Perry, Oliver and Cl.). 
Distribution : — Nubia, Eritrea, Central and Southern 5 Arabia, 
| Socotra, Sind. 
3. Cassia angusti folia Vahl. Symb. Bot. I, 29. 
Cassia lanceolata Wall. Cat. n. 5318 ; Boyle III. t. 37; W. et A. 
Prodr. FI. Pen. Ind. Or. p. 288. 
Senna officinalis Boxb. FI. Ind. II, 346. 
Arabic Fame : — Ssonna (Schweinf.). 
Description : — Shrub or undershrub with pale subterete or obtusely 
angled erect or ascending branches. Leaves usually 5 — 8-jugate ; 
leaflets oval-lanceolate, glabrous. 
Bacemes axillary, erect, laxly many-flowered, usually considerably 
exceeding the subtending leaf. Bracts membranous, ovate or obovate, 
caducous. Sepals obtuse, membranous. 
Legume flat, 7 — 8 lines in breadth. Seeds obovate, cuneate, com- 
pressed ; cotyledons plane. 
Locality — (Aden Birdw., Schweinf.). 
Distribution : — Mozambique (near Tette), extending eastward to the 
“desert tracts of North-Western and Peninsular India. 
Note : — Dalzell and Gibson (Bombay Flora, Suppl. p. 29) wrote 
in 1861:— 
“ It certainly grows wild in Sind. The narrow-lanceolate leaves, 
and peculiar broad falcate legume, at once distinguish it from our other 
Cassias, of which C. obovata is the only one having a similar legume. 
Introduced at Hewra from seed furnished by Captain Haines from 
Aden ; is now largely cultivated by ryots near the Hewra garden, from 
whence it is supplied to the Medical Stores, quite free from all admix- 
ture of other leaves."” 
Uses: — “ Adams (Comment, in Paulus Aegineta, III, 431 — *33) gives 
a most interesting sketch of the early knowledge in Senna. He says 
Serapion was undoubtedly the first author who describes the drug as 
an article of the Materia Medica. He, however, quotes still other writers 
such as Isaac Ebn Amram and Abix. All the Arab physicians, in fact, 
extol the merits of Senna in purging black or yellow bile and in acting 
as a cordial when mixed with suitable drugs, such as violets. The pre- 
sent species, as also the Alexandrian (C. acutifolia, Delile), were intro- 
duced to both Indian and European pharmacy through the Arabs. The 
