1-82 A CATALOGUE OF INDIAN 



fruit. It is the largest of the Myrohalans, of an oblong, ovate shape, 

 marked with five furrows and five ridges alternately. It is sometimes 

 used medicinally as a gentle purgative, but more frequently employed for 

 domestic purposes, particularly by the dyers, who consume large quan- 

 tities of it for preparing the cloth to receive the colours. See As. Res, 



IV. 41. ,, ,.^, , , _^ , , ,.,„_,_., .:■./,, ^: J, 



The Ze?igi liar is the Indian, or black Myroba'lah, of'^the pharmaceu- 

 tical authors. It differs from the other kinds in having scarcely the rudi- 

 ments of a nut, being the fruit dried in a half ripe state.* It is of an 



* It was Hot until very lately that I could obtam any information respecting' the tree which 

 affords iheZengi Har ; the Hindu druggists, to whom I applied, not havingljeen able to give 

 me any account of it. Dr. Roxburgh, to whom I mentioned this circunnstance, on ex- 

 amining the drug, conjectured it to be the unripe frsiif, or the diseased germ, of some species of 

 Ter>ninalin, caused by some insect, like galls. The justness of his conjecture was soon after- 

 Tvards confirmed, on inspecting the unripe drupes of a TerminoUa Chcbula in the Botanic 

 Garden, the appearance of which corresponded. "esactly with that of the ^e«g7 ^ar / and 

 whicli, on being dried, proved to be that xtrf fruit. 



Tiie uncertainty in which the writers on the, Maleria Medica still continue, respecting the 

 trees which jdeld the different Ym^ls o'i Mi/robalans, appears from tlie following remark of 

 Professor Murray, (Ap. Med. TI. 235.) <^ Oe reliqiiarum fjfyroia/awofM^n) specie Bo- 

 *' tanica nihil certi pronuntiari potest, <juin sdhuc disputatur utrum ex diyersis ; arbor ib us 

 " petita? sint, an potius ex eadem." A considerable degree of light w ill be thrown on the sul?- 

 ject, by the following extract from a Persjaw ti-eatise On medicines, the Mekhzen-ul-Adviyeh 

 of MuHAMMED HosEN Shira'zi, communicated, to me by tlie kindness of Mr, CoLEBaooKBj 

 and which, had I received, it sooner, would Jbave saved me tJie trouble of my inquiring res- 

 pecting the Zengi Har, 



Under the head ^7/,/i7e/ (the /frc5fc7i: name answering io the Persian Halileh) the author 

 distinguishes the following kinds, as the produce, of ihe same tree, (Terminalia Chebula) ga- 

 thered at different degrees of maturity. 



• 'I.-' Haltleh Zira, gathered -^Viicn t'he fruit is just set. Being dried, it is about the size of 

 :i}i&:Zird-.J;,( Cumin seed..). :."■''.'... 



2. ^. Jasyf, when more advanced. It is the size of a barley-corn. (Jaw.) 



S.. H.. Zengi. Hindi m A.sxvedj when the young fruit is still further advanced. Being 



