The seed is drilled in the ground, and the only attention required by the plant is loosening the ground and weeding two or three times when it is young.
The senna leaves imported from India are not generally so clean and free from rubbish as those from Alexandria. They are worth from 20s. to 27s. per cwt. in the Bombay market.
The prices are—Alexandria, l½d. to 6d. per lb.; East Indian, 2d. to 3d. per lb.; Tinnevelly, 7d. to 9½d. per lb.
Senna is collected in various parts of Africa by the Arabs, who make two crops annually; one, the most productive, after the rains in August and September, the other about the middle of March. It is brought to Boulack, the port of Cairo, by the caravans, &c., from Abyssinia, Nubia, and Sennaar, also by the way of Cossier, the Red Sea, and Suez. The different leaves are mixed, and adulterated with arghel leaves. The whole shipments from Boulack to Alexandria, whence it finds it way to Europe, is 14,000 to 15,500 quintals.
The quantities imported for home consumption were—
| From the East Indies. lbs. | Other places. lbs. | Total. lbs. | |
| 1838 | 72,576 | 69,538 | 142,114 |
| 1839 | 110,409 | 63,766 | 174,175 |
In 1840, 211,400 lbs. paid duty, which is now only 1d. per lb.
In 1848, we imported 800,000 lbs. from India; in 1849, the total imports were 541,143 lbs. The imports into the United Kingdom were, in 1847, 246 tons; 1848, 402 tons; 1849, 240 tons.
Alexandrian senna (Cassia acutifolia). This species is said by some to constitute the bulk of the senna consumed for medical purposes in Europe. It is much adulterated with the leaves of Cynanchum Arghel, Tiphrosia apollinea, and Coriaria myrtifolia.
C. lanceolata and C. ethiopica furnish other species of the same article, the greater part of the produce of which find its way to India, through the Red Sea, Surat, Bombay and Calcutta, the imports into Calcutta, in 1849, having been 79,212 lbs. C. obovata furnishes the Aleppo and Italian drug.