274 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



Pores small, ringed, in small groups of two or three toge- 

 ther, sometimes, but not always, more numerous, in the 

 Autumn wood. Medullary rays wavy, fine, short, white, numer- 

 ous, uniform and equidistant. Annual rings marked by dis- 

 tant lines, and often by a continuous belt of pores (Gamble.) 

 Leaves alternate, trifoliate. Leaflets 3 generally, some- 

 times 5 ; ovate-lanceolate, crenate, lateral sessile, terminal, long- 

 petioled. Flowers ljin. diam., bisexual, 4-5-merous, greenish- 

 white, in short lateral panicles, with a fine, sweet, honey scent. 

 Pedicels and Calyx pubescent. Calyx flat, teeth small ; Petals 

 imbricate ; Stamens numerous, filaments short, sometimes fasci- 

 cled (J. D. Hooker), anthers linear (Brandis.) Fruit 4-6in. diam., 

 globose mostly ; rind smooth grey or yellow. J. D. Hooker says 

 the fruit is oblong to pyriform. The tree is very common 

 in Western India. I have not seen the fruit in any of the 

 two latter shapes (K. R. Kirtikar.) Seeds numerous, oblong, 

 flat ; testa densely clothed with thick fibrous hairs, in a thick 

 orange-coloured, sweet, aromatic, gelatinous pulp. 



Parts used :— The fruit (both ripe and unripe), root bark, 

 leaves, rind of the ripe fruit and flowers. 



Uses : —In medicine it is used in various ways : — 



(a) The unripe fruit is cut up and sun-dried, and in this 

 form is sold in the bazaars in dried whole or broken slices. It is 

 regarded as astringent, digestive and stomachic, and is pres- 

 cribed in diarrhoea and dysentry, often proving effectual in 

 chronic cases, after all other medicines have failed. It seems 

 especially useful in chronic diarrhoea ; a simple change of the 

 hours of meals and an alteration in the ordinary diet, combined 

 with bael fruit, will almost universally succeed. 



The value of the fruit as a cure for dysentery is when 

 it is unripe. (K. R. Kirtikar.) 



(b) The ripe fruit is sweet, aromatic and cooling ; and, 

 made into a morning sherbet, cooled with ice, is pleasantly 

 laxative and a good simple cure for dyspepsia. The dried ripe 

 pulp is astringent and used in dysentery. 



(c) The root bark is sometimes made into a decoction and 



