Bastard Sena.
Botanical name:
Colutea
A common shrub kept for ornament in our gardens. The trunk is not very robust, but it keeps upright, and is covered with a whitish rough bark. The leaves are composed each of several pairs of smaller, set on a common rib, with an odd loaf at the end; but they are rounder and broader in proportion to their length than those of the true sena. The flowers are yellow: they are but small, but they hang in long branches, and are succeeded by pods, which look like bladders of a greenish colour.
The leaves are used: some give an infusion of them as a purge, but they are very rough: they work both upwards and downwards, and are only fit for very robust constitutions. For such as can bear them, they are good against rheumatic pains.
