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 l£in. 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 i3 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 : — 
(а) The unripe fruit is cut up and sun-dried, and in this 
form is sodd 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.) 
(б) 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 
