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 JEgle 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 tins 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 : — 
“ 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. 
