126 OFFICINAL CASSIA. 
memorial, been brought by the caravans to Alexandria, 
as the most convenient port whence it could be shipped 
or sold into Europe. From this circumstance, it is 
sometimes denominated Alexandrian senna. The pro- 
cess of stripping and drying the leaves is perfectly 
simple. When dried, they are of a yellowish green 
colour, have a faint, though not unpleasant smell, and 
a somewhat acrid, bitterish, and nauseous taste. 
These leaves have long been in use in Eastern coun- 
tries as a medicine ; and their repute, though not so 
great as in the East, is very considerable in Europe. 
They are administered in various ways ; and the pods 
have the same effect as the leaves. 
A kind of senna has of late been cultivated, with suc- 
cess, in Italy and some of the southern parts of France. 
137. The OFFICINAL CASSIA is a somewhat cylindrical 
pod, about an inch in diameter, and a foot or more in lengthy the 
fruit of a tree (Cassia fistula) which is cultivated in Egypt) the 
East and West Indies, and South America. 
This tree is forty or fifty feet high, and much branched. Its 
leaves are winged, with jive pair of leaflets, somewhat oval, 
pointed, smooth, and of pale green colour. The flowers are large, 
yellow, and grow in oblong clusters. The pods are divided, by 
transverse partitions, into numerous cells, each containing one 
seed. 
These pods are in request on account of the black, 
sweetish, but somewhat acid pulp, which is contained 
in their cells, and which is used, in many cases, as a mild 
opening medicine. It is customary in Egypt to pluck 
the pods before they are quite ripe, and to place them 
in a house, from which the external air is, as much as 
possible, excluded. They are then laid in beds about 
six inches deep, having palm leaves interposed betwixt 
them. On the two following days the whole are 
sprinkled with water ; and, in the course of about six 
weeks, they are in a fit state to be packed for sale. 
The East Indian and West Indian cassia somewhat 
differ, both in appearance and qualities. Of the former 
the pods are smoother, smaller, and have a thinner 
