Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/386

306 ounces ; of the mucilage of the gum, from one to two fluid ounces ; three or four times in the twenty-four hours

" Remarks — No less than nine parts of the margosa nîm tree are employed in medicine, and I am not aware of any other plant which produces so many drugs.

" The nim or margosa to-day is an important therapeutic agent and requires a special notice. The toddy or sap is yielded either spontaneously or extracted artificially. In the former case, a clear and colorless liquid begins to flow in a very thin stream or continuous drops, from two or three and sometimes more parts of the plant, and continues to do so from three to seven weeks. The trunk and large branches and roots are the parts from which the flow takes place through very small and recent cracks or fissures, and the quantity of the liquid discharged in the 24 hours from the whole tree varies from two to eight bottles according to its size. Of the several margosa trees in Madras and its vicinity known to yield occasionally the sap under discussion, there was one in Mylapore which enjoyed the greatest repute in this respect. This plant was in a small street, at the southern end of the above village, and died about 15 or 16 years ago. It was a pretty large tree, about 50 or 60 years old, and produced the sap every 3rd or 4th year. After the last or fourth occasion, the trunk became rapidly hollow and the plant died soon after this. On each occasion, before the sap began to flow, there was always, for three or four days, a distinct and peculiar rushing or pumping noise of a liquid within the trunk, which did not entirely cease till the discharge actually commenced from three or four parts of the plant.

"The above phenomenon being a sure forerunner of the flow of the sap, as just explained, the owner of the plant (Faiz Ahmed Khan) always gave notice of its occurrence to all his neighbours and many other persons, with a view to be prepared to avail themselves of this extremely rare medicine if they were in need of it. The fame of the sap as a curative agent was certainly so great that the plant was surrounded by people morning and 'evening, who bought and drank the drug very