Flora Medica

OR LEGUMINOSJE.with slight hairs. Nearly resembles Senna in its properties. Accordingto Bigelow about j more of the leaves of this plant than oftrue Senna is required to produce a given effect.CATHARTOCARPUS.The flowers of Cassia. Legume terete, indehiscent, dividedinto a number of spurious cells by transverse hard phragmata ;cells 1 -seeded, filled with pulp. Embryo with an excessivelythick bony covering (testa ? albumen ?). Trees. Leaves pinnated.Flowers in drooping racemes.54-5. C. Fistula Pers. synops.i. 459. Cassia fistula Linn. sp.pi. 540. Gcertn. ii. t. 147. f. 1. Woodv. i. 163. DC.prodr.ii. 490. S. and C. iii. t. 155. Roxb. ind. ii. 333. fl.Variousparts of the East Indies ;tropical Africa ;introduced into theWest Indies.A tree from 20 to 30 feet high. Leaves pinnate, from 12 to 18inches long, deciduous. Leaflets from 4 to 8 pair, opposite or nearlyso, the lower broad-ovate, the upper oblong, entire, generally obtuse oremarginate, polished on both sides, from 2 to 6 inches long and from1 to 3 broad. Petioles round, without glands. Racemes pendulous,simple, from 1 to 2 feet long. Flowers large, bright yellow, fragrant,on long, slender, smooth pedicels. Sepals 5, nearly equal, oval, smooth,much shorter than the corolla. Petals oval, unequal. The 3 lowerfilaments much longer than the others and having a double curve, butno swelling. Anthers on the 3 long filaments oblong, opening by 2 lineson the face, the other 7 clavate, with pores at the small end. Ovaryfiliform, smooth, one-celled, containing numerous seeds, which at thisperiod are without any sign of separation, that appearing in the advancedstate ; style short incurved ; stigma conical, smooth. Legumecylindrical, 9-12 inches long, dark blackish brown, terete, smooth, blunt,filled with a viscid black sweetish pulp, interposed between the seedsand the transverse diaphragms. An extract of the pulp gently laxative; seeds in the dose of 4-6 drachms purgative roots ; reputed anexcellent febrifuge.(LESALPINIA.Sepals 5, unequal, combined at the base into a somewhat persistentcup, the Tower one the larger and slightlyvaulted. Petals5, unequal, unguiculate the upper one shorter than the;others. Stamens 10, distinct : filaments villous and ascendingat the base ;anthers all fertile. Style filiform. Legume unarmed,compressed, 2-valved, wingless. Seeds roundish, oval,or oblong, compressed. Trees or shrubs, prickly or unarmed.Leaves abruptly bipinnated. Flowers yellow, racemose, or panicled.W. and A.546. C. Nuga Ait. hort. Kew. iii. 32. DC. ii.prodr. 481.Guilandina Nuga Linn. sp. pi. 546. (Humph, v. t. 50.) Moluccas.262