278 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



sugar, and heat it till it acquires the consistency of a thick 

 syrup. When the syrup is prepared from the pulp of the large 

 or cultivated variety of bael-fruit, the quantity of sugar required 



is only ten ounces. 



" Doses. — Of the powder, as a remedy in dysentery, from 

 twenty to forty-five grains ; and for all other purposes, from ten 

 to twenty grains ; four, five or six times in the twenty-four 

 hours. Of the syrup, from four fluid drachms to one fluid ounce 

 every third or fourth hour. The small or common variety of 

 bael fruit being, as a medicine, stronger than the larger or 

 cultivated variety, the dose of its powder should always be less 

 than that of the latter by one-third. . 



" Remarks. — There are two varieties of Male Marmelos, 

 the small or common, and the large or cultivated. There is no 

 distinct difference between the medical properties of both varie- 

 ties, except that the fruit of the small or common variety, which 

 is described in every botanical work in this country, is much 

 stronger, as a drug, than that of the large or cultivated variety. 

 The large or cultivated variety differs from the small or com- 

 mon one in the following points : — 



(C Generally free from spines ; leaflets broadly and abruptly 

 acuminate, instead of oblong or broadly lanceolate, and when 

 bruised, have an agreeable and aromatic odor ; fruit eatable 

 and delicious when quite ripe, almost invariably globular, 

 generally two or three times larger than that of the small or 

 common variety, and sometimes attains the size of a small 

 child's head. 



" The pulp of the ripe and half-ripe fruit of both varieties 

 is the best and most useful part of the plant for medicinal pur- 

 poses. The pulp should be removed from the rind before the 

 fruit is dry, cut into small pieces and dried in the sun. The pulp 

 of the ripe fruit of the large variety is, first, of flesh color, but 

 gradually becomes dark-brown ; it has an agreeable and aroma- 

 tic odour and a terebinthinate and sweetish taste. It is not 

 destroyed by keeping. However old it may be, if soaked in 

 water for some hours, it becomes as soft as it is when fresh, and 

 still retains its characteristic smell and taste. 



