55 uEGLE MARMELOS 



cells numerous, 8 20, small, arranged in a circle, with numerous 

 ovules in each cell. Fruit usually globose, 2 5 inches in 

 diameter, pericarp nearly smooth, greyish-yellow, about i inch 

 thick, hard, filled with softer tissue becoming very hard and 

 orange-red when dry ; cells as in ovary. Seeds very numerous, 

 somewhat compressed, ranged in closely packed tiers in the cells, 

 and surrounded by a very tenacious, slimy, transparent mucus 

 which becomes hard when dry ; testa white, covered with woolly 

 hairs immersed in the mucus, embryo with large cotyledons, and 

 a short superior radicle j no endosperm. 



Habitat. The Bael tree grows throughout the Indian Peninsula 

 in dry hilly places, reaching in the Western Himalaya to the 

 altitude of 4000 feet. It is extensively cultivated and frequently 

 planted near the Hindoo temples. It is also found either wild or 

 cultivated in Java, Burma, and some other Eastern Asiatic 

 localities. 



The pretty sweet-scented flowers appear about May with the 

 young leaves, and the fruit is ripe in October and November, 

 remaining long on the tree. The cultivated Bael is often without 

 the axillary spines. There is some variety in the size and form of 

 the characteristic fruit which is found sometimes ovoid, pyriform 

 or oblong, instead of the ordinary globular shape. The tree does 

 not flower in our botanic gardens. 



Hook, f., PI. Brit. Ind., i, p. 516; Brandis, Forest FL, p. 57; 

 Lindl., Fl. Med., p. 162. 



Official Part and Name. BEL^ FKUCTUS ; the dried half-ripe 

 fruit (B. P.). The half-ripe fruit (Bela Fructus, Bael) (I. P.). 

 It is not official in the United States Pharmacopoeia. 



Collection and Commerce. For medicinal use the fruit should be 

 collected in a half-ripe state, and carefully dried, for if allowed 

 to ripen, it entirely loses its astringent properties, and becomes a 

 mild aperient. It is imported from Malabar and Coromandel. 



General Characters and Composition. Bael fruit, or as it is 

 commonly called Indian Bael, is . of a roundish form, about the 



