5398 MORINGE ZL. 
be boiled and served with melted butter, or cut in pieces 
and mixed with curries. The flowers are eaten in curries, 
and also fried with butter. The young leaves are boiled with 
onions and spices and used in the same manner. A decoction 
of the root bark is used as a fomentation to relieve spasm. In 
the Concan the bark of the wild tree is ground with Plumbago 
root, pigeon’s dung, and chicken’s dung and applied to destroy 
Guinea-worms. Four tolds of the juice of the leaves of the 
cultivated tree are given as an emetic. The gum is said to be 
used to produce abortion, but it is difficult to obtain any 
reliable evidence upon a point of this nature ; it would be quite 
possible to use it as a tent to dilate the os uteri, as it is very 
tough, and swells rapidly when moistened, In many parts of 
India the right of collecting the pods upon Government lands, 
for sale as a vegetable, is leased; they are never allowed to 
ripen, and the oilis not expressed. The Bengal. Pharmacopwia 
furnishes formule fora compound spirit and compound infu- 
sion. In the Pharmacopeeia of India the plant is.placed in the 
secondary list, and its principal uses.are briefly noticed. 
Description.—The fruit is light brown when ripe, a foot 
or more in length, triangular, ribbed, and composed of three 
valves containing a soft white pith, and a single row of froma 
12—18 seeds, which are dark brown, roundish, the size of 
pea, and furnished with three membranaceous wings. ‘The 
kernel is white, oily and bitter. The gum, when it first exudes, 
is opaque and white ; from exposure to the air it soon becomes 
pink, and finally ofa dull red colour on the sarface, the interior 
remaining white. It occurs in pieces of considerable’ size, 
generally more or less vermicular in form, and appears to be 
only produced upon trees which have been injured by insects. 
The taste is blandand mucilaginous. In dry air the gum becomes 
very friable, but in a damp climate it. is tough and holds 20 
per cent. of its weight of water. The bark of the root has 
‘a reticulated light brown external surface ; it is thick, soft, 
and internally white, and has a pungent odour and taste, — 
fe exactly like Horseradish. The wood of the root is soft, — 
2c 7 ; 
