TAMARINDUS, the TAMARIND-TREE; a genus of the monogynia order, belonging to the triandra class of plants. There is but one species, viz. the Indica, a native of both the Indies, growing to a great size in those places where it is native. The stem is very large, covered with a brown bark, and dividing into many branches at the top. The branches are garnished with winged leaves, consisting of 16 or 18 pair of lobes, without a single one at the end. The lobes are about half an inch long, and \frac{1}{2}th of an inch broad; of a bright green colour, a little hairy, and sit close to the midrib. The flowers come out from the side of the branches, five, six, or more together upon the same footstalk in loose bunches. They are composed of five petals, one of which is reflexed upwards like the standard in some of the butterfly-flowers; two others stand on each side like wings, and the other two are turned downwards. The flowers are succeeded by thick compressed pods, two, three, four, or five inches long; having a double skin or cover, and swell in every part where the seeds are lodged; full of an acid stringy pulp, which surrounds smooth compressed angular seeds. The plants are easily propagated by seeds, in the countries where they grow; but in this country require the treatment of other exotics. The pulp is much used in medicine as an agreeable cooling purgative. The tamarinds which come from the East Indies are black and preserved without sugar, whence they are less agreeable to the taste than the brown ones which are brought from the West Indies, and require sugar to preserve them.