The legumes of Cassia moschata H B K.,[864] a tree 30 to 40 feet high, growing in New Granada and known there as Cañafistola de purgar, bear a close resemblance to those of Cassia Fistula L., except that they are a little smaller and rather less regularly straight. They contain a sweetish astringent pulp of a bright brown hue. When crushed and exposed to the heat of a water-bath, they emit a pleasant odour like sandal-wood. The pulp is coloured dark blackish green by perchloride of iron.
TAMARINDI PULPA.
Tamarindus, Fructus Tamarindi; Tamarinds; F. Tamarins; G. Tamarinden.
Botanical Origin—Tamarindus indica L.—The tamarind is a large handsome tree, growing to a height of 60 to 80 feet, and having abruptly pinnate leaves of 10 to 20 pairs of small oblong leaflets, constituting an abundant and umbrageous foliage. Its purplish flower buds and fragrant, red-veined, white blossoms, ultimately assuming a yellowish tinge, contribute to its beautiful aspect and cause it to be generally cultivated in tropical countries.
T. indica appears to be truly indigenous to Tropical Africa between 12° N. and 18° S. lat. It grows not only in the Upper Nile regions (Sennaar, Kordofan, Abyssinia), but also in some of the remotest districts visited by Speke, Grant, Kirk, and Stanley, and as far south as the Zambesi. According to F. von Müller,[865] it occurs in Tropical Australia.
It is found throughout India, and as it has Sanskrit names it may even be really wild in at least the southern parts of the peninsula. It grows in the Indian islands, and Crawfurd[866] has adduced reasons to show that it is probably a true native of Java. The mediæval Arabian authors describe it as growing in Yemen, India, and Nigritia.
The tamarind has been naturalized in Brazil, Ecuador and Mexico. Hernandez,[867] who resided in the latter country from 1571 to 1575, speaks of it as “nuper ... ad eas oras translata.” It abounds in the West Indies where it was also introduced together with ginger by the Spaniards at an early period. The tree found in these islands bears shorter and fewer-seeded pods than that of India, and hence was formerly regarded as a distinct species, Tamarindus occidentalis Gärtn.
History—The tamarind was unknown to the ancient Greeks and Romans; nor have we any evidence that the Egyptians were acquainted with it,[868] which is the more surprising considering that the tree appears indigenous to the Upper Nile countries, and that its fruit is held in the greatest esteem in those regions.[869]
The earliest mention of tamarind occurs in the ancient Sanskrit writings where it is spoken of under several names.[870] From the Hindus, it would seem that the fruit became known to the Arabians, who called it Tamare-hindi, i.e. Indian Date. Under this name it was mentioned by Isaac Judæus,[871] Avicenna,[872] and the Younger Mesue,[873] and also by Alhervi,[874] a Persian physician of the 10th century who describes it as black, of the flavour of a Damascene plum, and containing fibres and stones.
It was doubtless from the Arabians that a knowledge of the tamarind, as of so many other eastern drugs, passed during the middle ages into Europe through the famous school of Salernum. Oxyphœnica (Ὀζυϕοίνικα) and Dactyli acetosi are names under which we meet with it in the writings of Matthæus Platearius and Saladinus, the latter of whom, as well as other authors of the period, considered tamarinds as the fruit of a wild palm growing in India.