Compilation
Cassia hochstetteri

This species is outstanding in having only half the usual number of stamens. The small flowers on short pedicels and the subcentral nerve at the leaflet-apex are also striking features.The African material of C. hochstetteri has pods 3.5–4 mm. wide, while the pods are 4–6 mm. wide in Asia. I can see no other constant difference between specimens from the two continents.There is a tendency for the inflorescences in the African specimens to be more markedly supra-axillary than they are in Asia, and I have seen no African specimens with spreading hairs on the pedicels, though in Asiatic material they are not infrequent. C. hochstetteri has been collected very rarely in Africa, and because of this I prefer not to separate the Asiatic plants at present.The rejection of the name Cassia dimidiata for this species requires some comment. The name was due to Buchanan-Hamilton, who did not, however, publish it; he sent seeds to Roxburgh at Calcutta, and his herbarium-specimen came to D. Don. Don published Cassia dimidiata in 1825 from the herbarium-specimen, making no mention of the stamen-number. Roxburgh’s Senna dimidiata appeared later, in 1832, and the stamens were said to be 4–5. Whatever Buchanan-Hamilton intended by C. dimidiata, Don’s type at the British Museum (Natural History), which I have examined, shows 8 stamens and is not C. hochstetteri, but apparently C. mimosoïdes or a close relative, and is also evidently not the same as Roxburgh’s Senna dimidiata.