CASSIA, kiislea (1-at., from Gk. saceia, ea via, kassia, kasia, cassia. from Heb. getsi'oth, cas sia. from (oalmy, to cut). A name given by the ancients to a kind of fragrant medicinal bark. Cassia is also the botanical name of a genus of plants of the natural order Leguminosve, contain ing many species, more than 2u0 having been described as 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 deciduous ealyx of five somewhat unequal sepals and corolla of five petals. The leaves and pods of many species have a peculiar sweetish but nauseous smell, and a nauseous, bitter taste. They contain a purgative principle, and the leaves of some of the Asiatic and African species are highly valued and are much used as a medicine under the name of senna, the species Cassia aeutifolia and Cas sia angustifolia supplying the best. The leaves of Cassia Marylandira possess similar properties, and are now n-ed to some extent in the United States. Cassia fistula yields the cassia-pods, pipe cassia, or purging cassia, of the shops. It is a large tree, a native of Egypt and other parts of Africa. perhaps also of the East Indies, where it is widely diffused and cultivated, as well as in the West Indies and in the warm parts of America. Its pods. which have obtained for it the name of pudding-pipe tree. are sometimes two feet in length, cylindrical. black, consisting of thin. brittle woody valves. within which is a cavity divided by numerous thin transverse par titions, each cell containing a single seed im bedded 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 acts as a mild laxative. 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 6 t to 69 per cent. of sugar. The cassia-pods of the West Indies contain much more pulp. and are therefore more valuable, than those imported from the East. Cassia-bark, or cassia-wood, sometimes called China cinnamon, is a bark very similar to cinnamon both in ap pearance and properties: it comes, however, in thicker pieces and less closely quilled, and has a less sweet and delicate but more pungent flavor. It is the product of time Chum/nom/mum (waste or (frontal/rum, a tree of the same genus with the cinna mon-tree. a native of China and extensively cultivated there. It is highly es teemed by the Chinese, and is now largely im ported into Europe. As it contains a gm-eater proportion of essential oil, and is also much cheaper than true cinnamon, it is much more gen erally used. The oil which it contains is called oil of cassia. and is very similar to oil of cinna mon. Coarse cinnamon is sometimes sold as cassia. Ca:sada-buds are believed to be the dried flower-buds of the same tree which yields cassia bark. They are now imported into the United States in large quantities, and are much used in confectionery. In flavor and other qualities they resemble cassia-bark; in appearance they are very similar to cloves.