tamarind, tamarinde

[Fr. tamarind =a small, soft, and dark-red Indian date ( Cotgrave, in Skeat); tamarin =the fruit of the tamarind, tamarinier =the tree itself ( Littré ); Sp. & Ital. tamarin do; Port. tamarin do, tamarhino; Arab. thamar- hind i -the Indian date, to which tree the tamarind has no affinity.] 1. Botany : Tamarind us indica . Leaves abruptly pinnate, with many pairs of small leaflets; flowers in racemes; calyx straw-colored; petals yellow, streaked with red, filaments purple, anthers brown. It is an evergreen tree, eighty feet high by twenty five in circumference, cultivated in India as far north as the Jhelum, and very largely planted in avenues and 'topes." The wood, which is yellowish-white, sometimes with red streaks, is hard and close-grained. It weighs about 83 lbs. per cubic foot, is highly prized, but is very difficult to work, and is used in India for turning wheels, mal. lets, planes, furniture, rice pounders, oil and sugar mills, . It furnishes excellent charcoal for the manufacture of gunpowder. The pulp of the legumes pre ed in syrup is a delicious con Tamarind. (Showing flowers, leaflets, legume, and seed.) fection. The flowers and fruit are used in India as an astringent or as a mordant in dyeing, especially with safflower; the leaves furnish a yellow dye. The seeds yield a clear, bright, fluid oil, with an stitute a cooling drink in fevers. They enter into the Confectio sennæ. In India the seeds are given in dysentery, .; in the Mauritius a decoction of the given in asthma. tamarind-fish, s . A preparation of a kind of East Indian fish with the acid pulp of the tamarind fruit, much esteemed as a breakfast relish in India.