PHARMACEUTICAL MEETING. 
348 
NOTE ON CASSIA MOSCHATA, H.B.K. 
BY DANIEL HANBURY, F.L.S. 
Among tlie many botanical treasures with which the travels of Humboldt and 
Bonpland enriched the herbaria of Europe and which were described in that 
noble work the Nova Genera et Species Plan tar urn, is a species of Caissa dis¬ 
covered on the shores of the Magdalena in New Granada. This plant was 
placed by Kunth in that section of the genus of which Cassia Fistula L. is the 
type, and which is characterized by a long, woody, indehiscent legume, divided 
into cells by transverse septa; and, as the pulp (or more correctly juice') sur¬ 
rounding its seeds was found to have when fresh a musky odour, it received the 
specific name of moschata. The specimens collected by Humboldt did not in¬ 
clude flowers, and though the fruit was described, it does not appear that speci¬ 
mens were sent to Europe. The plant was therefore known only from the de¬ 
scription in the Nova Genera and from specimens consisting of leaves only, one 
of which is preserved in the Museum of Paris. A description of this Cassia 
was subsequently published in the Prodromus of Decandolle, in the Synopsis 
Generis Cassise of Yogel, and in Don’s System of Gardening and Botany, but 
as none of these authors appears to have had other material upon which to build 
than the original notice of Humboldt, the plant remained very imperfectly 
known. 
It happened however that in the early part of the year 1862 the late Mr. 
Sutton Hayes forwarded to London from Panama, pods of a species of Cassia 
known there as Canafistola de purgar, having a strong resemblance to Cassia fis¬ 
tula, but differing chiefly in being of smaller size. In reply to my observation 
that these pods were simply those of C. Fistula L., apparently somewhat dwarfed 
by want of culture or a poor soil, Mr. Hayes remarked :— 
“ I think you are wrong as to the tree which produces the pods I sent you 
being a form of the true C. Fistula. I have often seen both trees; and the 
true C. Fistula■ is much less like the Canafistola de purgar than many other 
species of Cassia. The flowers of C. Fistula, L., are of a light yellow and in 
very long racemes, and the leaflets are different in shape and much larger. 
The flowers of the Canafistola de purgar are yellow, becoming brick-red with 
age ; the racemes are much shorter than those of Cassia Fistula; and the 
leaflets are altogether different, being much smaller and quite like those of C. 
brasiliana; in fact, the Canafistola de purgar is much nearer C. brasiliana 
than it is to C. Fistula. The wood of the tree is very dark-coloured, heavy, 
and compact, and is considered one of the best on the Isthmus : it makes 
excellent fuel. The tree is very common in open woods on hills, and is per¬ 
fectly indigenous; whereas C. Fistida is to be found only about towns and 
in old cleared places, as if introduced. I have never seen C. Fistida in the 
virgin forests. C. brasiliana is very common about Panama.” 
Mr. Hayes having with these remarks sent me some excellent flowering spe¬ 
cimens of his Canafistola de purgar , it became immediately evident that the 
plant was wholly distinct from Cassia Fistula L. Further examination and a 
careful comparison with specimens, including the type specimens of C. moschata 
H.B.K., and some more recently brought from New Granada by my friend M. 
Triana, proved, as conclusively as in such case was possible, that Mr. Hayes’s 
plant and Cassia moschata H.B.K. were identical. Being now in possession of 
complete specimens, I presented a description of the plant to the Linnean So¬ 
ciety, which, with a figure, has been recently published.* Cassia moschata 
*■ Linnean Transactions, vol. xxiv. p. 161. pi. 26. The technical description of the plant 
is as follows:— 
