184 ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
most keen sighted observers vary in the terms used to convey an 
idea of the same thing, and that among earlier botanists, when 
the number of known plants was less, the same nicety of distinc- 
tion was not regarded. Decandolle, from whose authority 
there can hardly be an appeal, from a review of all the facts, has 
thought proper to adhere to the division of Lamarck; he has 
suppressed the species acutifolia and merged it into C. lan- 
ceolata, the original title. 
Merat and De Lens in their valuable Dictionary of the Ma- 
teria Medica have given place separately to the C. acutifolia 
of Delile and C. lanceolata of Forskall, this separation 
seems to us founded in a great measure upon conjecture, and 
it will be seen hereafter that they are too much inclined to 
multiply species. 
M. Richard* has received the assertion of Delile, and 
M. Fee! appears undetermined, but conjectures that they may 
be only varieties. 
Synonymes of Cassia foliis acutis. 
C. Senna, variety Alexandrina. Lin. Willdenow. 
C. Acutifolia. Delile. 
C. Lanceolata. For shall, Lamarck, Nectoux, Decandolle. 
Senna orientalis. Persoon. 
S. de la Palte, de la ferme, du Said. 
Senna guebelly — Arab, meaning wild, or from the moun- 
tains. Nectoux. 
Senna Meccensis? — apparently a general name. 
The next species which makes a portion of the Alexan- 
drian Senna is the one with obtuse leaves, now universally 
known by the appropriate name C.obovata, from the obovate 
form of the leaflets. — With regard to this species, no question 
of doubt has been raised, as the well marked characters which 
belong to it are difficult to be mistaken. Delile and Nec- 
toux agree in every particular in the description of this 
species, but have added little to the botanical History of it. 
The description is as follows. — It is from a foot to a foot and 
*Histoire Naturelle Medicale. 
f Cours d'Histoire Naturelle Pharmaceutique. 
