98 FRUITS 



Varieties Muscatels : these are considered the best and are exported from 

 Malaga and Valencia ; the clusters of purplish black fruits are usually packed 

 in boxes in layers. 



Valencias : these are also exported from Valencia, but are generally picked 

 from their stalks ; they are of a rather dark golden brown colour. 



Turkish : a light brown, elongated raisin. 



Sultanas : a seedless variety grown in Turkey, Greece, and Persia ; exported 

 chiefly from Smyrna. 



Currants : a small seedless variety grown on the Ionian Islands and in the 

 Grecian archipelago. 



Uses. Raisins possess demulcent, refreshing, and nutrient 

 perties, and are also slightly laxative. 



pro- 



CASSIA PODS 



(Purging Cassia, Fructus Cassias Fistulae) 



Source, &C. Cassia pods are the ripe fruits of Cassia Fistula, 

 Linne (N.O. Leguminosce) , a tree of moderate size, indigenous to 

 India, and often cultivated as as. ornamental plant (Indian laburnum). 

 The tree bears a pendulous raceme of fragrant flowers, each with a 

 one-celled many-seeded ovary, which develops into a long, leguminous 

 fruit. As the latter ripens the seeds become separated from one 

 another by the formation of numerous thin, transverse, spurious 

 dissepiments, and the fruit, which was originally one-celled, becomes 

 spuriously many-celled. It differs from a typical legume in being 

 indehiscent as well as many-celled, and may be described therefore 

 as a many-celled indehiscent legume. 



Description. The ripe pods, as met with in commerce, are long, 

 nearly straight, cylindrical, dark chocolate-brown fruits attaining 

 45 to 60 cm. in length and 20 to 25 mm. in thickness. The surface, 

 which appears smooth and shining to the naked eye, is seen under 

 a lens to be marked with minute transverse striations ; both the 

 dorsal and ventral sutures are evident but not prominent. To one 

 end of the fruit a short stalk is attached ; the other terminates very 

 abruptly in a short point. 



The pericarp, although thin, is hard and woody. The interior of 

 the fruit is divided into a number of compartments by transverse 

 dissepiments placed about a quarter of an inch apart. Each, com- 

 partment contains a single seed attached to the ventral suture by a 

 long, dark, thread-like funiculus. A thin layer of nearly black firm 

 pulp, which in the fresh fruit is soft and fills the compartment, adheres 

 to each side of the membranous dissepiments. In very dry pods 

 the pulp is often so much contracted that the seeds lie loose in the 

 cavity and rattle when shaken ; these are less esteemed. 



The seeds are flattened-ovoid, reddish brown, smooth, and extremely 



