TAMARIND

(Arab, tara or-hindy, Indian date.) A large tree of the Leguminous order, whose pods supply the subacid preserve commonly sold in the shops under this name. The pods in their natural state are acid, and acquire their sweetne by the sugar in which they are packed after their hard brittle shell has been taken off. The tree itself is a native of bot?n the East and West Indies. TAMARIX (Tamaris i a, the people among whom it grows), is a name given by botanists to some shrubs of slender growth, clothed with very small green leaves and long spikes of pink flowers, the natural country of which seems to extend from Spain to Delhi, occupying a band of ten or twelve degrees of latitude. They are in this country merely ornamental plants; but in Syria and the adjoining countries they secrete a kind of manna, whicli some authors have a erted was the manna of scripture; but this opinion is not regarded as well founded. [s. 1219]