IMPORTS OF BRAZILIAN SARSAPARILLA.
lbs.
1827            28,155
1828            49,280
1829            52,772
1830            19,842
1831            31,972
1832            91,238
1833            13,077
1834            28,803
1835            22,387
1836             1,718
1837            12,842
1838              —­
1839             9,484
1840             4,141
1841             1,399
1842             5,572

The total imports in 1849 were 118,934 lbs.

Sarsaparilla has been found growing in the Port Phillip district of Australia, and has been shipped thence in small quantities.  It seems to be indigenous to the Bahamas, and is to be found on many of the out islands.  Mr. Wm. Dalzell, of Abaco, collected some considerable quantity at a place called Marsh Harbor, which was found to be of a superior quality.

Some thousands of pounds of sarsaparilla were brought to Falmouth, Jamaica, last year, and bought by merchants for export.  It came from the parish of St. Elizabeth, and there are whole forests covered with this weed, for such in reality it is.  It is too the real black Jamaica sarsaparilla, that is so much valued in the European and American markets.  It is also found in other parts of the island.

In 1798 3,674 lbs. of sarsaparilla were shipped from La Guayra; 2,394 lbs. in 1801 from Puerto Cabella, and 400 quintals from Costa Rica, in 1845, valued at eight dollars a quintal.

SENNA.—­Several varieties of Cassia, natives of the East, are grown for the production of this drug.  The dried leaves of C. lanceolata or orientalis, grown in Egypt, Syria, and Arabia, the true Mecca senna, are considered the best.  In Egypt the leaves of Cynanchum Arghel are used for adulterating senna, Cassia obovata or C. senna, also a native of Egypt, cultivated in the East Indies, as well as in Spain, Italy, and Jamaica.  It is a perennial herb, one or two feet high.  In the East Indies there is a variety (C. elongata) common about Tinnivelly, Coimbatore, Bombay, and Agra, &c.  Several of this species are common in the West India islands.  The plants, which are for the most part evergreens, grow from two to fifteen feet high; they delight in a loamy soil, or mixture of loam or peat.

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, l1/2d. to 6d. per lb.; East Indian, 2d. to 3d. per lb.; Tinnevelly, 7d. to 91/2d. 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.