Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/589

 TAMA American Review." The best Talmudical lex- icon is J. Levy's Worterbuch uber die Talmu- dim und Midraschim (Leipsic, 1875 et seq.), based, like its predecessors, on Nathan ben Jehiel's 'Arubh, composed about 1100. TAMA, an E. central county of Iowa, inter- sected by the Iowa river ; area, 720 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 16,131. The surface is undu- lating and the soil highly fertile and well timbered. There are rich valleys along the streams, and good water power. It is inter- sected by the Chicago and Northwestern rail- road. The chief productions in 1870 were 1,054,167 bushels of wheat, 1,103,371 of In- dian corn, 282,591 of oats, 23,588 of barley, 88,616 of potatoes, 17,080 Ibs. of wool, 407,- 567 of butter, and 25,854 tons of hay. There were 7,959 horses, 6,073 milch cows, 9,218 other cattle, 4,547 sheep, and 17,646 swine; 1 1 manufactories of carriages and wagons, 3 of furniture, 3 of lime, 5 of saddlery and harness, 8 flour mills, and 3 saw mills. Capital, Toledo. TAMAtfDUA. See ANT-EATER. TAMAQUA, a borough of Schuylkill co., Penn- sylvania, on the Little Schuylkill river and on branches of the Philadelphia and Reading rail- road and the Central railroad of New Jersey, 16 m. E. N. E. of Pottsville and 60 m. N. E. of Harrisburg; pop. in 1870, 5,960; in 1875, about 7,000. It is in a rich coal and iron region, and has good water power. It con- tains three machine shops and founderies (one of them the largest in the state), stove works, a boot and shoe factory, a rolling mill, two saw mills and sash factories, a spike factory, a brick kiln, a powder mill, a tannery, a lime kiln, two breweries, seven or eight bottling establishments, a gun factory, two screen fac- tories, and two saddle and harness factories, besides shops of the Philadelphia and Reading railroad company. It has a tire department, a national bank, a banking and trust company, three brick school houses, a daily and a week- ly newspaper, and ten churches. TAMARACK. See LARCH. TAMARIND, the fruit of a leguminous tree, tamarindus Indica, the common and botani- cal name being derived from the Arabs, who, having learned of the fruit from the Hindoos, called it tamare-kindi, the Indian date. The tree is indigenous to various parts of Africa, and probably also to India, and it grows wild in several of the East Indian islands ; it was early introduced into the West Indies, and is completely naturalized there, and also in por- tions of Brazil and Mexico. There is only one species of the genus. It is a large handsome tree, 60 to 80 ft. high ; its compound leaves, of 10 to 20 pairs of small oblong leaflets, form a dense foliage ; the flowers, white when they first open, but soon turning yellow, have pur- ple and brown stamens, are borne in racemes, and are fragrant; the fruit is an indehiscent legume or pod, 3 to 6 in. long, straight or curved, thick, and with a hard, brittle exterior shell; the seeds, from 4 to 12, are each sur- TAMARISK 561 rounded by a tough papery membrane, outside of which, and between it and the shell, is a firm, juicy, very acid pulp, traversed by strong woody fibres, which start from the fruit stalk and run through, throwing off branches, to the opposite end (apex) of the pod. The ripe- ness of the pods is known by the brittleness of the outer shell ; they are picked, and in the West Indies deprived of the shell and packed in a cask, and boiling sirup is poured over them until the vessel is full ; when cool the package is headed up and is ready for market. A better kind, rarely found on sale, is prepared by packing the shelled fruit in stone jars, with alternate layers of sugar. In the East Indies the fruit is usually preserved without sugar; the shell is removed and the pulp and seed are kneaded into a mass, and in this form tamarinds are chiefly used on the continent of Europe. The pulp has a brisk acid taste, modi- fied more or less by the amount of sugar used ; it contains tartaric, citric, and other acids, and some principle not well ascertained which gives it a laxative property. Tamarinds are used, especially in tropical countries, to prepare a refreshing drink, by pouring boiling water Tamarind (Tamarindus Indica). over the fruit ; this drink is also used as a laxa- tive and refrigerant in fevers. By boiling the preserved fruit with a small quantity of water, and sifting, the pulp is obtained pure ; it is used as an article of diet, and it enters into the composition of a popular laxative, the com- pound confection of senna. The wood is use- ful for timber, and makes a fine charcoal. The shell of the seeds is astringent and con- tains tannin ; their kernels are used as food in India in times of scarcity. TAMARISK, the name of ornamental shrubs of the genus tamarix (the ancient name, sup- posed to be from the river Tamaris), of a small family (tamariscinece) closely related to the pink family. The genus belongs to the old world, and the more than 50 described species are reducible to about 20, all shrubs or small trees, with minute scale-like or awl-shaped, al- ternate leaves, which are appressed, and small purplish flowers in terminal spikes or racemes ; the parts of the flower are in fours or fives ; "t has a one-celled ovary, ripening into a pod