Cassia (legume)
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Cassia
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| Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture |
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Cassia (ancient Greek name). Leguminosae. Senna. Herbs, shrubs or trees, a few of which are in cultivation in America, as border plants and under glass. Leaves even-pinnate: fls. nearly regular (not papilionaceous), with the nearly equal calyx-teeth mostly longer than the tube; corolla of 5 spreading, nearly equal clawed spreading petals; stamens 5-10, frequently unequal and some of the anthers abortive, the good anthers opening at the top: fr. a stalked pod which is either flat or terete, containing numerous seeds and often partitioned crosswise.—Species nearly or quite 400 in the warmer parts of the globe, some of them in cool temperate regions. The cassias delight in a sunny exposure. Most of those cultivated in the United States are herbs or herb-like shrubs, attractive for the finely cut foliage and the showy flowers. Some of them are cultivated only in the extreme South. C. corymbosa is probably the best garden subject. Cassias arc summer bloomers, for the most part. Propagation is mostly by divisions and seeds, the annual species always by seeds. Senna leaves, used in medicine as a cathartic, are derived from various species, chiefly from C. acutifolia of Egypt, and C. angustifolia of India and other Old World tropics. The "'Cassia lignea" of pharmacopoeas is the product of a Cinnamomum. Cassia pods of commerce, used in medicine, are the fruits of C. Fistula. Many of the species contribute to therapeutics. Some of them provide tanning materials. C. laevigata, Willd. Shrub, glabrous: lfts. 3-4 pairs, ovate-oblong or ovate-lanceolate, acuminate: fls. yellow in terminal and axillary racemes: pod leathery, 2-3 in. long, nearly cylindrical. Tropics.— C. occidentalis, Linn. Hedionda. Annual or subshrubby, widely distributed in the tropics as a weed, the seeds used as a substitute for coffee; it is the "fedegosa" and "negro coffee" of Afr.: lfts. 4-12 pairs, ovate-lanceolate or lanceolate, acuminate, and a gland near the base of the petiole: racemes short and few-fld.: pod glabrous, oblong-linear compressed or nearly cylindrical; the small seeds produced abundantly—C. splendida, Vogel. Shrub, 6-10 ft., much branched: fls. bright yellow, very large. S. Amer. Recently catalogued in S. Calif.—Others of the numerous species of Cassia are likely to appear in cult., particularly some of the native kinds; but as a whole, the genus is not rich in horticultural subjects. L. H. B. CH
The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text. |
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References
- Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963
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