Cassia acutifolia is a small undershrub, two or three feet high, with a straight, woody, branching, whitish stem; but, according to Landerer, the senna plant attains the height of eight or ten feet in the African deserts. The leaves are alternate and pinnate, with glandless petioles, and two small narrow pointed stipules at the base. The leaflets, of which from four to six pairs belong to each leaf, are almost sessile, oval-lanceolate, acute, oblique at their base, nerved, from half an inch to an inch long, and of a yellowish-green color. The flowers are yellow, and in axillary spikes. The fruit is a flat, elliptical, obtuse, membranous, smooth, grayish-brown, bivalvular legume, about an inch long and half an inch broad, scarcely if at all curved, and divided into six or seven cells, each containing a hard, heart-shaped, ash-colored seed.
Cassia angustifolia, as usually grown is annual, but with care it may be made to live through the year, and then assumes the character of an undershrub. It has an erect, smooth stem, and pinnate leaves, with from four to eight pairs of leaflets. These are nearly sessile, lanceolate, obscurely mucronate, oblique at the base, smooth above and somewhat downy beneath, with the veins turned inward so as to form a wavy line immediately within the edge of the leaflet. The most striking character of the leaflet is its length, which varies from 2 to 5 cm. The petioles are without glands; the stipules minute, spreading and semi-hastate. The flowers are bright yellow, and arranged in axillary and terminal racemes rather longer than the leaves. The legume is oblong, membranous, tapering abruptly at the base, rounded at the summit, and 4 to 5 cm. long by about 1.5 cm. broad.
Source: United States Dispensatory (1918) [2]
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