Tamawidus.] XXXI. LEGUMINOS^E. 163 



6. TAMARINDUS, Linn. 



An unarmed tree, with abruptly pinnate leaves, small caducous stipules 

 and racemose flowers. Calyx with a turbinate tube, and 4 imbricate, 

 membranous segments. Petals 3, the lateral ones ovate, the upper inner 

 one narrower, concave. Stamens 3, perfect, incurved, united in a sheath to 

 the middle, with oblong versatile anthers, dehiscing longitudinally, a few 

 short filiform staminodes at the edge of the sheath. Ovary stipitate, the 

 stalk adnate to the calyx-tube, with numerous ovules ; a thick style and 

 clavate stigma. Pod oblong, curved or nearly straight, thick, outer peri- 

 carp a thin crustaceous shell, inner layer an acid pulp, traversed by fibres. 

 Seeds obovate or roundish, often angular, compressed, with a brown, very 

 hard, thick, shining testa and no albumen. 



1. T. indica, Linn. ; Eoxb. Fl. Ind. iii. 215 ; W. & A. Prodr. 285 ; 

 Bedd. Fl. Sylv. t. 184. The Tamarind. Sans. CJmJcra, chinclia. Vern. 

 Amli, ambli, imli, Hind. ; Chintz, Konkan ; Magyiben, Burm. 



Leaves 3-6 in. long, leaflets 10-15 pair, linear-oblong, glabrous, obtuse, 

 with fine reticulate venation, and more or less distinct intramarginal 

 nerves. Eacemes loose, with 10-15 flowers, at the end of short lateral 

 branchlets. Petals unilateral, beautifully variegated with red and yellow. 

 Pod pendulous, 3-8 in. long, 1 in. broad. 



Cultivated throughout India and Burma, save in the North-Western Panjab ; 

 trees are found as far as the Jhelam, but the fruit does not ripen west of Am- 

 balla. In the Central Provinces, the Bassi forests Meywar, and in many parts 

 of South India, the tree is found self-sown in waste and forest lands, but there 

 seems no sufficient evidence of its being originally indigenous in India. 

 Wherever I have seen it, it has been in the vicinity of existing or abandoned 

 cultivation. The tree is cultivated in the tropics of both the New and Old World, 

 and is believed to be truly indigenous in tropical Africa (Oliver Fl. Trop. Afr. 

 ii. 308). Never leafless, the foliage changes in March and April ; fl. May, June ; 

 fruit ripens 7-9 months after flowering. 



A large tree, attaining 80 ft. or more, with a short thick trunk (25 ft. girth 

 not rare), often ridged, with a magnificent broad and high, shady crown. Bark 

 in. thick, dark grey, brownish to blackish, tesselated by longitudinal fissures 

 and cross-cracks. Wood yellowish white, hard and close-grained, the outer and 

 younger wood a little softer, but the sapwood not defined by a concentric line, 

 such as we find it in the wood of Teak, Sissoo, Sal, Bija sal, Oak, and other 

 trees. Heartwood small near the centre, outline very irregular, dark purplish 

 brown, projecting into the yellowish outer wood with radiating ramifications, so 

 that planks frequently show alternate layers of light- and dark-coloured wood. 

 Annual rings indistinct, medullary rays very numerous, very fine, pores 

 moderate, equal, uniformly distributed, each pore or group of pores surrounded 

 by lighter-coloured tissue. Weight of outer wood (sap) 60 lb. (Cunningham) ; 

 of the dark-coloured heartwood from 79-83 lb. Value of P. 605-623 (sap- 

 wood), 850 (heartwood). Polishes well, and though extremely hard and dim- 

 cult to work, is prized highly for many purposes when a tree past fruit-bearing 

 is felled. Naves and other parts of wheels, mallets, planes, tent-pegs, furni- 

 ture, rice-pestles, oil-presses, and sugar-crushers are made of it ; it is an excel- 

 lent wood for turning. The heartwood is very durable, the outer wood is apt 

 to be eaten by insects. 



