part ii. Mateiua Medica. — Tamarindi pulpa. 53S

Medical properties and uses. — The bark of this species ofSwietenia is astringent and tonic. In India, it is used for thecure of inter mitten ts with considerable advantage, and has alsobeen found efficacious in most of the diseases in which the cin-chona bark proves serviceable. It is very little employed inEurope, and is not found generally in the shops. The dose,in substance, pulverized, is half a drachm.

TAMARINDUS. Spec. Plant. Willd. iii. 577.CI. 16. Ord. 1. Monadelphia Triandria. Nat. ord. Lomentacese,

Linn. Leguminosae, Juss.G. 1250. Calyx four-parted. Petals three. Nectary of two short

bristles under the filaments. Legume pulpy.Sp. 1. T. indica.' The Tamarind tree. Med. Bot. 2d edit. 418.

t. 161. (Balam-puIIi) Rheede, Hort. Malab. i. 39. t. 23.Officinal. Tamarindi pulpa, Lond. Tamarindi Indicje fruc-

tus, Edin. Tamarindus ; fructus, Dub. The pulp, or pre-served fruit of the Tamarind.

Syn. Tamerins (F.), Tarciarinden (G., Dutch), Tamaiindo (/., &), Tamarmho(Tort.), Umblic (H. and Arab.), Amlica (San.)

This tree is a native of the East and West Indies, of Arabia,and Egypt. It is a large beautiful spreading tree. The leavesare abruptly pinnate, composed of sixteen or eighteen pairs ofsessile leaflets, half an inch only in length, and one-sixth of aninch 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 isof a straw yellow colour, and deciduous: the petals also yel-lowish, and beautifully variegated with red veins; ovate, con-cave, acute, indented, and plaited at the edge; and the fila-ments purplish, bearing incumbent brownish anthers : the podsare thick, compressed, and of a dull brown colour when ripe:those from the West Indies from two to five inches long, withtwo, three, or four seeds ; those from the East Indies are twiceas long, and contain five, six, or seven seeds : the seeds in bothare flat, angular, shining, and lodged in a dark pulpy matter.

In the West Indies, the pods are gathered in June, July,and August, when fully ripe; and the fruit being freed fromthe shelly fragments, is placed in layers in a cask, and boilingsyrup poured over it, till the cask is filled : the syrup pervadesevery part quite down to the bottom, and when cool the caskis headed for sale. 3 The East India tamarinds are darkercoloured and drier, and are said to be preserved without sugar.When tamarinds are good, they are free from any degree ofmustiness ,• the seeds are hard, flat, and clean; the strings toughand entire; and a clean knife thrust into them does not receive

1 '0£u (polyiKa. Nicolai Myrepsiti, the last of the Greek physicians.

2 Long's Jamaica, iii. 729.

MM 3