Spec. Plant. Willd. iii. 577.

Cl. 16. Ord. 1. Monadelphia Triandria. Nat. ord. Leguminosae. G. 1250. Calyx four-parted. Petals three. Nectary of two short bristles under the filaments. Legume pulpy. Sp. 1. T. Indica.2 The Tamarind-tree. Med. Pot. 3d. edit. 448.

t. 161. (Balam-pulli) Rheede, Hort. Malab. i. 39. t. 23. Officinal. Tamarindus, Lond. Tamarindi Indicae fructus,

Edin. Leguminis pulpa, Dub. The pulp, or preserved fruit of the Tamarind.

Syn. Tamerins(F.), Tamarinden (G.,Dutch), Tamarindo(I., S.), Tamarinho (Port.), Poollie (Tam.), Ambala (Cyng.), Tirair hindee (Pers.), Assam Jaba (Malay), Umblie (H. & Arab.), Amlica (San.), Kamal Assam (Jav.).

This tree is a native of the East and West Indies, of Arabia, and Egypt. It is a large, beautiful, spreading tree.3 The leaves are abruptly pinnate, composed of sixteen or eighteen pairs of sessile leaflets, half an inch only in length, and one sixth of an inch broad, of a bright green colour, downy, oblong, entire, and obtuse. The flowers are in loose bunches of five or six, which come out from the sides of the branches; the calyx is of a straw-yellow colour, and deciduous : the petals are also yellowish, and beautifully variegated with red veins; ovate, concave, acute, indented, and plaited at the edge; and the filaments purplish, bearing incumbent, brownish anthers: the pods are thick, compressed, and of a dull brown colour when ripe; those from the West Indies are from two to five inches long, with two, three, or four seeds; those from the East Indies are twice as long, and contain five, six, or seven seeds: the seeds in both are flat, angular, shining, and lodged in a dark, pulpy matter.

1 Annates de Chimie. t. xciv. p. 129.

Nicolai Myrepsici, the last of the Greek physicians. 3 The natives of India think that it is dangerous to sleep under a tamarind-tree during the night.

In the West Indies, the pods are gathered in June, July, and August, when fully ripe; and the fruit being freed from the shelly fragments, is placed in layers in a cask, and boiling syrup poured over it till the cask is filled; the syrup pervades every part quite down to the bottom, and when cool the cask is headed for sale.1 The East India tamarinds are darker coloured and drier, and are said to be preserved without sugar. When tamarinds are good, they are free from any degree of mustiness; the seeds are hard, flat, and clean: the strings tough and entire; and a clean knife thrust into them does not receive any coating of copper. They should be preserved in closely covered jars.

Qualities. - Tamarinds are inodorous, and have an agreeable, acid, sweetish taste. According to the analysis of Vau-quelin, the pulp contains, independent of the sugar with which it is mixed, bitartrate of potassa, gum, jelly, citric acid, tartaric acid, malic acid, and a feculent matter. The acid taste chiefly depends on the citric acid, the quantity being greater than that of the other; xvj. of the prepared pulp containing jss. of citric acid, but only 3 xij. of tartaric acid, ss. of bitartrate of potassa, and 3ss. of malic acid. Medical properties and uses. - Tamarind pulp is refrigerant, and gently laxative. The simple infusion of the pulp in warm water, or a whey made by boiling ij. of it in two pints of milk, and straining, form very grateful, refrigerant beverages, which are advantageously used in febrile diseases. The dose of the simple fruit required to act upon the bowels is so large, that it is seldom given alone as a purgative, but is generally combined with cassia or manna, the action of which it augments; or with such of the neutral purgative salts as are not decomposed by it; which is the case with those that have potassa for their base, and are therefore incompatible in mixtures with this fruit. It forms an agreeable addition to infusion of senna; but the purgative power is weakened by it.

Officinal preparations. - Infusum Tamarindi cum Senna, E. D. Electuarium Sennae, L. D.

1 Long's Jamaica, iii. 729. Y Y 2