COMBRETACEM. 277 



Those of Terminalia^ formerly very celebrated in therapeutics as 

 tonics and astringents and still nsed as such in their native countries, 

 where they are also employed especially for tanning skins and dyeing 

 stuffs, were known under the name of MyrohalanSj^ applied also to 

 other fruits borne by plants of very different families.^ Especially 

 distinguished among them were Myrohalan citrine ^ attributed to 

 Terminalia citrina ;* if. ChebuUc to T. Ghebula ; ^ M. Belleric to T, 

 BeUerica.^ The bark of these trees, prescribed for inflammations 

 and fevers, like that of some species of Gomhretum, yields a gum, 

 sometimes sweet, as that of Acacia arahica, sometimes astringent, 

 burning with a flame. Terminalia presents still another point of 

 analogy to the Oaks in that their various organs, under the influence 

 of insect puncture, develope galls ^ rich in tannin, good for dyeing and 

 tanning. Such especially is T, Ghebula^ the galls of which, horn- 

 shaped, large, flat, and hollow, give with alum a solid yellow colour, 

 and with ferruginous clay, an excellent black dye. The root of T. 

 latifolia^ affords an anti-diarrhcetic in the Antilles. That of T, 

 Gataj)pa,^ a beautiful Indian species, introduced and cultivated in 

 tropical America, is also prescribed for flux, diarrhoea, dysentery, 

 and its bark for gastric and bilious fever. They are useful for dyeing 

 black. Its fruit is valued as an article of food and as a medicine. 

 The same is the case with many other species of Terminalia^ notably 

 T. alatay^° in India, is substituted for catechu in the treatment of 

 angina, ulcers, and scorbutic eruptions ; T. macroptera^^^ of Senegal, 



^ Or Myrobolans, Mi/rabolans, by corruption. trine, chebulic, as well as indian and black M. 



Mer. and Del. Diet. Mat. Med. iv. 539. — Guib. are the fruits of the same species, brought 



J)rog. Simpl. ed. 6, iii. 282. — Rosenth. Synops. to different degrees of maturity. " Colebrook 



Flant. Diaphor. 901. has traced the changes of M. chebula, and 



2 See vol. V. p. 164, note 5. has seen that its fruit undergoes six, each of 



3 Divided into yellow ovoid and angular, which has received a distinct name among the 

 greenish and piriform, and brownish and round- Indians." {Journ. de Bot. vi. 212.) Kcenig 

 ovoid (GuiB.). has given to T. chebula the name of T. Myroba- 



^ E.OXB. Cat. Hort. Gale. 33. — DC. Prodr. iii. lanus citrina. Guibourt, according to the au- 



12. n. 15. — M. citrina Qmrts. Fruct. ii. 90, thors cited, considers Indian M. as a green state 



t. 97. of chebulic M. 



8 Retz. Obs. v. 31.— RoxB. PL Coromand. ii. ? Guib. loc. cit. 287, fig. 652. 



52, t, 197.— LiNDL. Fl. Med. 67.— DC. Prodr. n. » Sw. Fl. Ind. Oce. ii. 747.— DC. Prodr. n. 11. 



14. — M. Chebula G^rtn. loc. cit. {Olivier des ^ L. Mantiss. 519. — Lamk. III. t. 848, fig. 1. 



Neyres, at Martinique). — Jacq. Ic. Par. i. t. 197. — DC. Prodr. n. 5. — 



^ RoxB. loc. cit. 54, t. 198. — DC. Prodr. n. 13. Rosenth. op. cit. 900. — Juglans Catappa Lour. 



—M. Bellerica Breyn. Icon. 18, t. 4.— Gjertn. Fl. cochinch. (ed. 1790), 573 {Bois canot, B. d 



loc. cit. — Tani Rheed. Hort. Malab. iv. t. 10. hvile). 



The sources of the principal Myrobalans are ^^ Roth Nov. Spec. 379. — Pentaptera alata 



indicated in this manner in standard works ; Banks. — Rosenth. op. cit. 902. 



but on this point there is much uncertainty. ^' Guill. and Perk. Fl. Sen. Tent. i. 276, t. 



According to Merat and Del. (foe. cit.) ci- 63.— Laws, Fl. Prop. Afr. ii. 416 {Rebreb). 



I 



