CASSIA, a name given by the ancients to a kind of medicinal bark, but their descriptions are so imperfect that it is impossible to determine what bark it is. The name is employed in the English translation of the Old Testament in Exodus xxx. 24, and in Psa. xlv. 8, its use in these places being derived from the Septuagint; and it is not improbably sup posed that the substance intended is the same now known in our shops as C. bark, or C. lignea.-2. C. is now the botanical name of a genus of plants of the natural order leg uminosa, sub-order efeealpinem, containing many species—more than 200 having been described—trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants, natives of Africa and of the warm parts of Asia and America. They have abruptly pinnate leaves, and flowers with deci duous calyx of five somewhat unequal sepals. corolla of five petals, of which the lower ones are the larger, ten free stamens, of which three are long, four short, and three abortive, and anthers opening by two holes at the top. The leaves and pods of many species have a peculiar sweetish hut nauseous smell, and a nauseous bitter taste accom panied with a loathsome sliminess. They seem all to contain the purgative principle called cathartine (q.v.), and the leaves of some of the Asiatic and African species are highly valued, and much used as a medicine, under the name of SENNA (q.v.). The leaves of C. ilfarylandka possess similar properties, and are now used to some extent in the United States of America.—C. fistula (cathartocarpus) yields the C. of the pharma copoeias, the C. pods, pipe C., or purging C. of the shops. It is a large tree, a native of Egypt and other parts of Africa, perhaps also of the East Indies, in which, at all events, it is now widely diffused and cultivated, as well as in the West Indies and warm parts of America. Its leaves have 4 to 6 pair of ovate smooth leaflets, its flowers are yellow and in loose racemes; its pods, which have obtained for it the name of pudding-pipe tree, are sometimes 2 ft. in length, cylindrical, black, consisting of thin brittle woody valves,
within which is a cavity divided by numerous thin transverse partitions, each cell con taining a single seed imbedded in a soft black pulp. It is this pulp that is the part used in medicine; it has a sweetish mucilaginous taste, and in small doses is a mild lax ative. It is sometimes removed from the pods when fresh; or an extract is obtained, after they are dried, by boiling and evaporating. It is said to contain 61 to 69 per cent of sugar. The C. pods of the West Indies contain much more pulp, and are therefore more valuable than those imported from the East.-3. C. bark, or C. lignea, sometimes called China cinnamon, is a bark very similar to cinnamon both in appearance and properties; but in thicker pieces, and less closely quilled, of a less sweet and delicate flavor, but more pungent. It is the produce of the cinnamomum a, or aromaticum, a tree of the same genus with the cinnamon-tree, a native of China, and extensively culti vated there. It is highly esteemed by the Chinese, and is now largely imported into Europe. As it contains a greater proportion of essential oil, and is also much cheaper than true cinnamon, it is much more generally used. The oil which it contains is oil of C., and is very similar to oil of cinnamon. Coarse cinnamon is sometimes sold es cassia. C. buds are believed to be the dried flower-buds of the same tree which yields C. bark. They are now imported into Britain in large quantities, and are much i used in confectionery. In flavor and other qualities they resemble C. bark; in appear ance they are. very similar to cloves.