TAMARIMJI PULPA. 225 



acquainted with it,' which is the more surprising considering that the 

 tree appears indigenous to. the Upper Nile countries, and that its fruit 

 is held in the greatest esteem in those regions.- 



The earliest mention of t<imarind occui-s in the ancient Sanskrit 

 writings where it is spoken of under several names.^ From the Hindus, 

 it would seem that the fruit became known to the Arabians, who called 

 it Taiimre-hlndi, i.e. Indian Date. Under this name it was mentioned 

 by Isaac Judseus,^ Avicenna,^ and the Younger Mesue,^ and also by 

 Alhervi," a Persian physician of the 10th century who describes it as 

 black, of the flavour of a Damascene plum, and containing fibres and 

 stones. 



It was doubtless from the Arabians that a knowledge of the tamarind, 

 as of so many other eastern drugs, passed during the middle ages into 

 Europe through the famous school of Salernum. Oxyphcenica (O^v- 

 (poiviKo) and Dactyli acetosi are names under which we meet with it in 

 the writings of Matthaeus Platearius and Saladinus, the latter of whom, 

 as well as other authors of the period, considered tamarinds as the fruit 

 of a wild palm growing in India. 



The abundance of tamarinds in Malabar, Coromandel, and Java was 

 reported to Manuel, king of Portugal, in the letter of the apothecary 

 Pyres* on the drugs of India, written in Cochin, January 27th, 1516. 

 A correct description of the tree was given by Garcia de Orta about 

 iifty 3"ears later. 



Preparation — Tamarinds undergo a certain preparation before being 

 brought into commerce. 



In the West Indies, the tree matures its fruit in June, July and 

 August, and the pods are gathered when fully ripe, which is known by 

 the fragility of the outer shelL This latter, which easily breaks between 

 the tinger and thumb, is then removed, and the pods deprived of shelly 

 fragments are placed in layers in a cask, and boiling syrup is 

 poured over them till the cask is filled. When cool, the cask is closed 

 and is then ready for sale. Sometimes layere of sugar are placed 

 between the fruits previous to the hot syrup being added.^ 



East Indian tamarinds are also sometimes preserved with sugar, but 

 usually they are exported without such addition, the outer shell being 

 removed and the fruits being pressed together into a mass. 



In the Upper Nile regions (Darfur, Kordofan, Sennaar) and in 

 Arabia, the softer part of tamarinds is, for the sake of greater perman- 

 ence and convenience of transport, kneaded into flattened round cakes, 

 1 to 8 inches in diameter and an inch or two thick, which are dried in 

 the sun. They are of firm consistence and quite black, externally 



^ Sir Gardner Wilkinson (^jic<V«< E(jyp- ^ Stisndaa Ayurvedas, ed. Hessler, i. 



tians,\. 1S41, 7S) says that tamarind stones (1S44) 141, iii. (1850) 171. 



have been found in the tombs of Thebes ; •• Opera Omnia, Lugd. Lilo, lib. ii. Prac- 



but on consulting Dr. Birch and the collec- tices, c. 41. 



tions in the British Museum we have ob- * Opera, Venet. 1564. ii. 339. 



tained no contirmation of the fact. * Opera, Venet. 1561. 52. 



-Barth speaks of it as an invaluable gift ' FundamerUa Pharmacologite, ed. Selig- 



of Providence : Re'nen und Entdeckungeii in mann, Vindob. 1830, 49. 



-Word- und CentralaJ'rica, Gotha, 1858. i. ^Joum. de Soc. Pharm. LusU. ii. (1838) 



614; iii. 334. 400; iv. 173.— The same 36.— See also Appendix, 



says Rohlfs, Reisen durch Nordafriat, ^Lunan, Hortus Jamaicemia, ii. (1814) 



Gotha (1872) 23. 224 ; Macfadyen, Flora of Jamaica, 1837. 



335. 



