562 sturtevant's notes on edible plants 



Tamarindus indica Linn. Leguminosae. tamarind. 



Asia and tropical Africa. The tamarind furnishes a fruit in southern Asia and middle 

 Africa, which is used for food and is manufactured into cooling drinks. This large tree 

 is planted before the houses in Senegal, Egypt, Arabia and India. The acid pulp in India 

 is used in the preparation of a beer.^ The seeds or stones in India in times of famine are 

 boiled or fried and then eaten ' as they are also in Ceylon.' Tamarinds form an important 

 ingredient in Indian cookery, especially in curries, and in western India are used in pre- 

 serving or pickling fish. In Timor, Cimningham * saw the fruit exposed in large quantities 

 for sale in the markets, the husk having been taken off and the fruit then dried in the sun. 



The West Indian form of T. indica is cultivated for its fruit in the West Indies, the 

 pulp of which is mixed and boiled with sugar and forms an important article of commerce. 

 In Curacao, the natives eat the pulp raw. In Martinique, they eat even the unripe fruit.' 

 Fresh tamarinds are occasionally brought to this cotmtry. They have an agreeable, sour 

 taste, without any mixtiu-e of sweetness. As we usually find them, in the preserved state, 

 they form a dark colored, adhesive mass, consisting of syrup mixed with the pulp, mem- 

 brane, strings and seeds of the pod. They are of a sweet, acidulous taste. On accoimt 

 of their laxative and refrigerant effect, convalescents often find the pulp a pleasant addi- 

 tion to their diet The tree is very abimdant in Jamaica and is grown in the government 

 collection of fruits at Washington. 



Tamarix art'.culata Vahl. Tamariscineae. 



Arabia, Persia and East Indies. Tamarisk manna is produced on the twigs by the 

 ptmcttire of an insect in parts of the Punjab and in Sind. This manna is chiefly collected 

 during the hot weather and is used medicinally or to adulterate sugar.* This plant is 

 said by Prosper Alpinus ' to be the atle of the Egyptians, written atl by Forskal ' and 

 atleh by Delile.' 



T. gallica Linn, manna plant. 



Europe, Asia and Africa. This species descends in Senegal to the neighborhood of 

 the equator. It is called in Egypt and Fezzan attil and tarfe by the Arabs, whence the 

 name taray of the Spaniards, and tarajol of the Canarians.'" It supplies a manna in the 

 southern Punjab." Burckhardt " states that this manna is used by the Bedouin Arabs 

 near Mt. Sinai with their food. Arnold " says, in Persia, the grovmd beneath the bushes 



Unger, F. U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 337. 1859. 

 'Ainslie, W. Mat. Ind. 1:427. 1826. 



Masters, M. T. Treas. Bot. 2:1121. 1870. 



Hooker, W. J. Joum. Bot. 4:252. 1842. 



'Don, G. Hist. Dichl. Pis. 2:438. 1832. (T. occidentalis) 

 'Brandis, D. Forest Ft. 23. 1874. 

 'Hooker, W.J. Journ. Bot. 3:428. 1841. 

 Ibid. 



Ibid. 



" Hooker, W. J. Journ. Bot. 3:429. 1841. 



" Brandis, D. Forest Fl. 21. 1874. 



" U. S. Disp. 532. 1865. Note. 



"Arnold, A. Through Persia Caravan 227. 1877. 



