180 AITRANTIACE^. 



some of which as the Yajar Veda are supposed to have been written 

 not later than 1000 B.C. — Constantinus Africanus was acquainted with 

 the fruit under notice. 



Garcia de Orta, who resided in India as physician to the Portuguese 

 viceroy at Goa in the 16th century, wrote an account of the fruit under 

 the name of Marmelos de Benguala (Bengal Quince) Girifole or Beli,^ 

 describing its use in dysentery. 



In the following century it was noticed by Bontius, in whose 

 writings edited by Piso ^ there is a bad figure of the tree as Malum 

 Cydonium. It was also figured by Rheede,^ and subsequently under 

 the designation of Bilack or Bilack tellor by Rumphius.^ The latter 

 states that it is indigenous to Gujarat, the eastern parts of Java, Sum- 

 bawa and Celebes, and that it has been introduced into Amboina. 



But although ^gle Maimielos has thus been long known and 

 appreciated in India, the use of its fruit as a medicine attracted no 

 attention in Europe till about the year 1850. The dried fruit which has 

 a place in the British Phm^macopoeia is now not unfrequently imported. 



Description — We have already described the form and structure of 

 the fruit, which for medicinal use should be dried when in a half ripe 

 state. It is found in commerce in dried slices having on the outer side 

 a smooth greyish shell enclosing a hard, orange or red, gummy pulp in 

 which are some of the 10 to 15 cells existing in the entire fruit. Each 

 cell includes 6 to 10 compressed oblong seeds nearly 3 lines in length, 

 covered with whitish woolly hairs. When broken the pulp is seen to 

 be nearly colourless internally, the outside alone having assumed an 

 orange tint. The dried pulp has a mucilaginous, slightly acid taste, 

 without aroma, astringency, or sweetness. 



There is also imported Bael fruit which has been collected when 

 ripe, as shown by the well-formed seeds. Such fruits arrive broken 

 irregularly and dried, or sawn into transverse slices and then dried, or 

 lastly entire, in which case they retain some of their original fragrance 

 resembling that of elemi. 



Microscopic Structure — The rind of the fruit is covered with a 

 strong cuticle, and further shows two layers, the one exhibiting not very 

 numerous oil-cells, and the other an inner made up of sclerenchyme. 

 The tissue of the pulp, which, treated with water, swells into an elastic 

 mass, consists of large cells with considerable cavities between them. 

 The seeds when moistened yield an abundance of mucilage nearly in the 

 same way as White Mustard or Linseed. In the epidermis of the seeds 

 certain groups of cells are excessively lengthened, and thus constitute 

 the curious woolly hairs already noticed. They likewise afford muci- 

 lage in the same way as the seed itself. 



Chemical Composition — We are unable to confirm the remarkable 

 analyses of the drug alluded to in the Pharmacopoeia of India;^ nor 

 can we explain by any chemical examination upon what constituent the 

 alleged medicinal efficacy of bael depends. 



The pulp moistened with cold water yields a red liquid containing 



1 SiHphal and Bel are Hindustani 3 Hori. Malab. iii. (1682) tab. .37 



names. — See also Fliickiger, Documente, 29. {Covalam). 



- De Indice re nat. et med. 1658, lib. vi. * Herh. Amb. i. tab. 81. 



c. 8. ^ Edition 1868, pp. 46 and 441. 



