LIQUORICE PLANT. TAMARIND TREE. 143 



From the time of Theophrastus* it has been a received opinion that it 

 very powerfully extinguishes thirst : this, if true, is the more remark- 

 able, as sweet substances in general have a contrary effect +. It is in 

 common use as a pectoral or emollient in catarrhal derluctions on the 

 breast, coughs, hoarsenesses, &c. " Infusions or extracts made from 

 it afford likewise very commodious vehicles or intermedia for the ex- 

 hibition of other medicines : the liquorice taste concealing that of 

 unpalatable drugs more effectually than syrups or any of the sweets 

 of the saccharine kind J." 



Theophrast. Plin. Cullen. WoodvilU. 



SECTION V. 



Tamarind Tree. 

 Tamarindus Indica. Linn. 



The Indian tamarind is the only known species of this genus. The 

 tree rises to a great height, sending off numerous large branches, 

 which spread to a considerable extent, and have a beautiful appear- 

 ance : the trunk is erect, thick, and covered with rough bark of a 

 greyish or ash-colour : the leaves are pinnated, alternate, consisting 

 of several parts (about 14) of small pinnae, which are opposite, ob- 

 long, obtuse, entire, smooth, of a yellowish green colour, and stand 

 upon very short footstalks the flowers approach to the papiliona- 

 ceous kind, and are produced in racemior lateral clusters: the calyx 

 consists of four deciduous leaves, which are patent or reflexed, ob- 

 long, or rather ovate, entire, smooth, nearly equal in size, and straw- 

 coloured or yellowish the petals are three, ovate, concave, acute, 

 indented, and plaited at the edges, about the length of the calyx, 

 and of a yellowish colour, beautifully variegated with red veins: the 



* Hence it was named S^w, and the root directed to be chewed in dropsies 

 and other disorders where great thirst prevailed. Vide Theoph. L. 9, cap. 13. 

 Also noticed by Pliny, Lib. 22. c. 9. 



f Dr. Cullen says, " to explain this, I observe that in the sweet of liquorice, 

 separated from the root, I do not find that it quenches thirst more than other 

 sweets; and I take the mistaken notion to have arisen from this, that if a piece 

 of the root is chewed till the whole of the sweetness is extracted, that further 

 chewing brings out the acid and bitterish matter, which stimulates the mouth and 

 fauces, so as to produce an excretion of fluid, and thereby takes off the thirst 

 Which the sweetness had produced." M. M. vol. ii.p. 407. 



J Lewis, 1. c. 



