ISO 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
To these essays it is our design to bestow especial attention, 
as from them almost all the information collected by system- 
atic writers has been obtained. 
The two species of acute and obtuse leaved Cassia, were 
immediately recognised by both MM. Delile andNECTOux, 
the individuals referred to, not only upon examining the drug 
prepared for exportation and stored at the depot (Boulac) but 
also in the localities where they discovered them growing; situ- 
ated in Upper Egypt contiguous to the Cataracts of the Nile. 
We shall now present Delile's account of the first of these 
two species; he has named it acutifolia* 
Specific description. "C. acutifolia, caule suffruticoso, foliis 
pinnatis, petiolo eglandulato, foliolis 5-9 jugis, lanceola- 
tis, acutis, leguminis elipticis, facie utraque nudis, margine 
superne arcuatis. Cassia lanceolata. Nectoux. Non vero 
Cassia lanceolata Forskalii, petiolis glandulosis distincta. 
NECTOuxt has named the plant under consideration Cassia 
lanceolata, entertaining the opinion that the name derived 
from Forskall should not be changed, and believing that 
this author had reference to the same. He gives the follow- 
ing description of it: "This plant is designated first by its 
pinnate leaves, composed of from four to six pair of oval lan- 
ceolate folioles, a little villous all over; second by a gland at 
the base of the petiole, and another between each pair of 
folioles; third by the oval oblong flattened legumes. Con- 
flicting as these two accounts may appear, still indisputable 
evidence exists to show that each of them refers to the same 
identical plant. The authors were both attached to that divi- 
sion of the French Army which penetrated into Upper Egypt; 
they therefore visited and speak of the same localities at the 
same season of the year, and Delile admits that the plant 
described by him is the one described by his colleague. The 
Committee appointed by the National Institute to examine 
* Florae Egypticae illustratio. Auctore A. R. Delile. Description de 
l'Egj'pt, &c. Hist. Naturelle, torn. 2d. 
t Voyage dans la Haute Egypte an dessus des Cataractes, &c. par 
H. Neetoux. 
