TRIANDRIA.
190. TAMARINDS are the pulp and needs produced by the pods of a large tree with winged leaves (Tamarindus Indica, Fig. 51), which grows in the East and West Indies, America, and several parts of Asia.
This tree is from thirty to forty feet in height; and its leaves consist usually of fourteen pairs of leaflets. The flowers are formed in clusters, from the sides of the branches, and have each three yellowish petals, beautifully marked with red veins.
The fruit of the tamarind-tree is a roundish but somewhat compressed pod, four or five inches in length, the external part of which is very brittle. Each pod contains three or four hard seeds, enveloped in tough skins, surrounded by a dark-coloured, acid pulp, and connected together by numerous tough and woody fibres.
Previously to the exportation of tamarinds, the pulp, with the seeds and fibres, are freed from their shell: and those which we receive from the West Indies are usually preserved in syrup. In Jamaica the fruit is gathered about the month of July. When fully ripe, and after the pods are cleared away, the remainder is placed in layers, in small casks: and boiling syrup, just before it begins to granulate, is poured upon them until the casks are filled, after which the heads are put in and fastened up for exportation.
The East Indian tamarinds are generally packed without any admixture. They are more esteemed than the others; and, when in the pods, are easily distinguished from them by their being longer, and containing six or seven seeds; the pulp also is drier and of darker colour.
It is said that we are indebted to the Arabians for a knowledge of the use of tamarinds. In hot climates they are a most refreshing and delicious fruit; and, dissolved in water, are much used as a cooling and agreeable beverage, particularly by persons suffering under fever. They also give great relief in sore throats, and other complaints.
POLYANDRIA.
191. The SOUR-GOURD, BOABAB, or AFRICAN CALABASH-TREE (Adansonia digitata) is probably the largest of all vegetable productions. The trunk, although not usually more than twelve or fifteen feet high, is frequently from sixty to eighty feet in girth. The lowest branches extend almost horizontally; and, as they are sometimes near sixty feet in length, they bend, by their own weight, to the ground; and thus the whole tree forms an hemispherical mass of verdure, which measures from 120 to 130 feet in diameter.