TERMINALIA, in Roman antiquities, a festival celebrated annually on Feb. 23, in honor of Terminus, the god of boun daries. It was then usual for peasants to assemble near the principal landmarks which separated their fields, and, after they had crowned them with garlands and flowers, to make libations of milk and wine, and to sacrifice a lamb or a young pig. The public festival was cele brated at the sixth milestone on the road to Laurentum, because at one time that was the limit of Roman territory.
In botany (as a pseudo-singular), the typical genus of Terminalem. Trees and shrubs with alternate leaves, usually crowded at the end of the branches. From the tropics of Asia and America. T. chebula is a large and valuable tree, 80 to 100 feet high, growing in India and Burma. The fruit is ellipsoid or obovoid and five-ribbed, from three-quarters of an inch to an inch and a quarter in length. The pounded rind gives the black myrobalan. The bark of the tree is used for tanning and dyeing. There are often galls on it, which are also used for dye ing. Another of the myrobalans is T. belerica, 60 or 80 feet high. It grows
in India. The leaves and the fruit are used for tanning and dyeing. Other In dian species said to be used for tanning and dyeing are T. arjuna, T. catappa, T. citrina, T. paniculata, and T. tomen tosa. The fruits of T. catappa, some times called the almond, are eaten; so are the kernels of T. chebula, which, however, if taken in large quantities, produce intoxication. A gum like gum arabic is exuded from its bark. T. che bula was believed by the old Hindus to be alterative and tonic. The fruits of T. belerica are astringent and laxative; the other Indian species are also medic inal. The milky juice of T. benzoin becomes fragrant on being dried. It is burnt in churches in Mauritius as a kind of incense. A drastic resin flows from T. argentea, a Brailian species. The root of T. latifolia is given in Jamaica in diar rhoea. The bark of T. alata is astringent and antifebrile. The wood of T. toinen tosa, when polished, resembles walnut, and has been used in India for making stethoscopes.