Cassia.

Cassia auriculata Linn. Leguminosae. Cassia.

East Indies. In some parts of the country, a spirituous liquor is prepared by adding the bruised bark to a solution of molasses and allowing the mixture to ferment.

Cassia fistula Linn.

Tropical Asia. This handsome tree has been introduced into the West Indies and northern Africa, whence its-pods are imported for use in medicine. In Mysore, stalks of it are put in the ground and worshipped. It is classed by Unger as among the little-used vegetable foods, the pulp apparently being eaten. This pulp about the seeds is, however, a strong purgative.

Cassia occidentalis Linn. Stinking Weed.

Cosmopolitan tropics. Rafinesque says the pods of this plant are long, with many seeds, which the countrymen use instead of coffee. It is found in tropical and subtropical America and in both Indies. It has been carried to the Philippines, and its seeds, while tender, are eaten by boys. Naturalized in the Mauritius, the natives use the roasted seeds as a substitute for coffee. Livingstone found the seeds used as coffee in interior Africa.

Cassia sophera Linn. Cacay.

Old World tropics. This plant is said by Unger to be used as a vegetable in Amboina.

Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World, 1919, was edited by U. P. Hedrick.