EAST INDIA SENNA. 
137 
ART. XXXI V. — EAST INDIA SENNA. 
By Dr. Royle, F. R. S. 3 &c, 
Professor of Materia Medica at King's College. 
I send yon a specimen of the senna grown by Dr. Gibson, 
and with which he has supplied the military hospitals ; the 
surplus, amounting to 17 cwt., he has sent to this country* 
to see how it will answer the purposes of cultivators there 
and of purchasers here. We all know the Alexandrian 
senna is much adulterated, and it is almost sure to continue 
to be so, for the demand is much greater than the supply, 
and thus this is likely to be, with the distant carriage on 
camels before it reaches the banks of the Nile. The Afri* 
can and Arabian senna, which reaches us by the way of 
Bombay, and is called East Indian senna, is not appreciated 
here, though genuine and pure, because it is not carefully 
gathered nor clean picked. The Tinnevelly senna, however, 
which was grown from Arabian seed, holds the first place 
in the market, because it is well grown and carefully picked. 
Many years since I grew senna, in the Saharunpore Bota- 
nic Garden, both from Baya senna-seed, and from some 
seed sent me by Sir Charles, afterward Lord Metcalfe, 
Both the seeds produced the same species, which I have 
figured in my Illustrations of Himalaya Botany. The 
senna was pronounced by Dr. Twining, after using it in 
the General Hospital, equal to the best. The same kind of 
senna has again been tried in the hospitals at Saharunpore, 
as I myself had done before sending it to Calcutta. Dr. 
Bolton who submitted the garden senna to this second set 
of experiments at Saharunpore, pronounced it equal if not 
superior to the senna of commerce, acting without griping, 
and forming an excellent purgative. It was determined in 
consequence that the Government hospitals should all be 
supplied with senna grown in the garden, when a planter 
tu the neighborhood of Agra offered to produce it in the 
12* 
