Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 52.djvu/798

776 the sand-box, had been the cause of the disaster. Travelers relate many interesting and curious stories about the sand-box.

One day, seeing some curious-looking pods in a store, we inquired where they grew, and were directed to the yard of a good natured and amiable negro woman. She designated two large trees as the King and Queen; a very pretty idea, since they are diœcious—that is, one bears unfertile or staminate flowers only, and corresponds to the male, while the other bears fertile or pistillate flowers only, and corresponds to the female. The latter is the pod-bearing tree,



and the smaller of the two. The trees are very old, one having a girth of twenty feet at six feet from the ground. Its name, monkey tamarind (Adansonia digitata), is given from the fact that in Jamaica monkeys are sometimes caught while attempting to obtain the seeds from the large woody pods which the tree produces. The true tamarind (Tamarindus indica) of the West Indies is also a large tree with delicate spreading foliage, and is distinguished by its brown leguminous pods. We bought these at the market and ate the acid pulp which surrounds the seeds. With the aid of sugar it makes a palatable drink. When sold for commerce, and used for medicinal purposes, the pods are removed, but the seeds remain connected together by a fibrous string. There are several species