a species of medicinal fruit brought from the Indies, of which there are five kinds, viz. the citrine of a yellowish red colour, hard, oblong, and the size of an olive; the black or Indian myrobalan, of the size of an acorn, wrinkled and without a stone; chebulic myrobalans, of the size of a date, pointed at the end, and of a yellowish brown; emblic, which are round, rough, of the size of gall, and of a dark brown; and balleric, which are hard, round, of the size of an ordinary prune, less angular than the rest, and yellow. They are all slightly purgative and astringent. The word comes from the Greek μυρον, ointment, and βακτρον, acorn, from their being in the form of acorns, and used in medicine.