64
MATERIA MEDICA
in their length from one to three quarters of an inch, and in their
thickness from one to two lines; and are five-angled or roundish, and
conical or tapering. They are brown or dark-brown when old, and
grey when new; odorless and slightly aromatic in taste. As young
as they are they contain minute black seeds, and are distinctly five-
celled. The stalks of these fruits are about the same length as the
latter (one to three quarters of an inch), but somewhat less in thick-
ness, paler in color, rough and often knotty or bent in the centre. The
above fruits, with their stalks attached to them, particularly when
fresh, bear a great resemblance to flower-buds; hence the word moggu
or bud. The meaning of the word maráti is not correctly known.
The dry young fruits of Eriodendron anfractuosum are sometimes
sold in the bazaar under the same name (maráti-moggu) and used for
the purpose of adulteration and substitution of those of B. malabaricum,
Although the similarity between the fruits of both plants is very great,
yet the difference between their stalks, which are almost always attached
to them, is so distinct that they can be very easily distinguished from
each other. The fruit stalk of the former is round, about the thickness
of a pin, and two or three times longer than the fruit; and therefore
contrasts a great deal with that of the latter, which is described, in the
preceding paragraph. The fruits of E. anfractuosum are always round
without any ridge near the hilum, and somewhat larger and darker
in color than those of B. malabaricum.
The cotton of B. malabaricum is of a reddish hue when new, hence
the English designation "the red cotton plant."
In some native and other medical works two useful and common
bazaar drugs, viz., the Suféd or white Múslí and the Káli or black
Músli are erroneously considered to be the produce of B. malabaricum.
Both are supposed to be the roots of this plant, the only difference
being that the former is produced before, and the latter after, it begins
to flower. I have repeatedly dried and examined not only the roots
but also the rootlets of this tree, both before and after it was in flower,
but never found them to bear the smallest resemblance to any of the
varieties of white or black Músli. TheS u f é d - m ú s l i
o f C a l c u t t a , B o m b a y ,
Hyderabad, and almost all other parts of India, is the root of
Asparagus adscendens, and of Madras and a few other places in South
India, that of A, sarmentosus. Curculigo orchioides is the source of the
Káli-músli of the Madras Presidency and many other localities, and
Aneilema tuberosa that of the drug known under the same name in some
other parts of India. There is, however, another variety of
which, as far as my knowledge extends, is not sold in any bazaar, but
mentioned in many Persian and other medical works. This is the
tap-root of the young plant of B. malabaricum, and correctly spoken
of as Múslá, Múslá-simal, or Músli-sémbal in Dr. George Watt's
Dictionary of the Economic Products of India, Vol. I, p. 491, in contra-
distinction to suféd and káli múslies of the bazaar.
The Sémal-múslí is, like the tap-root of many other young plants,
tapering, and varies a great deal in its size according to the age of the
plant from which it is taken. If the age of B. malabaricum is two
years (which is the longest period allowed for selecting the root), the
tap-root is generally about the size of a long radish, and if only below
six months, it is from 4 to 7 inches long and about the thickness of
a finger. Fifteen to twenty-one months is about the best period for