GARCIA SILVA FlQUERVA, in A.D. 1627, visited Persia on a diplomatic mission. GARCINIA, a genus of the Garciniacere, the inangosteen tribe, a natural order of plants, con sisting of trees or shrubs growing in Ceylon, the Peninsulas of India, tbo K haasya mountains, Sylhet, Burma, Andamans, Java, and the Moluccas. The species of this order all abound in a viscid, yellow, acrid, and purgative gum-resinous juice, resembling gamboge. This gum-resin is obtained by remov ing tho bark, or by breaking the leaves or young shoots. It is met with in commerco as the fine or gum gamboge, cake or lump gamboge, and coarse gamboge. The Garcinacem genera are—Garcinia, lfammea, Mesua, Calophyllum, Kayea, Calysaccion, Rheedia, Pentadesma, 3foronobea, Micrantbera, Quapoya, Clusia, Tavomita. Several of the Garcinia genus yield edible fruits, and one of them is the mangosteen fruit tree, G. mangostana, L., a tree of tlie Malay Peninsula and islands of the Moluccas. G. Kydia, Roxb., of the Andaman Islands, is a tree with a sharp but agreeably acid fruit, similar to the large fruit of G. pedunculata, Roxb., which grows in Rungpur. G. paniculata, Roxb., a tree of Sylbet, has a palatable fruit somethiug like the mangosteen ; G. Roxburghii, Wight, a tree of Travancore, Malabar, and Chittagong, has an edible but very acid fruit ; G. purpurea, Roxb., grows on the western coast of peninsular India. The fruits of several other species of the Garcin acere are brought to table in the countries where they grow, but they are regarded as very iuferior. The manimee apple, or wild apricot of S. America, of another genus, is said to be very delicious. Its seeds are anthelmintic ; its flowers yield on distilla tion a spirit known as Eau de Creole, and wine is obtained by fermenting its sap. lir. Gamble enumemtes 22 species of Garcinia.—Roxb.
Garcinia cambogia, Desrous, not Roxb.
Cambojia gutta, L. G. Indica, Choisy.
G. Roxburghii, Wight. I G. papilla, Wight G. Kydia, Iir. and A.1 Wontay, . . . . CAlt.' Racta shrava, . SANSS, VA1siti amli, . . DOICH. Goraka-gass, . . SINGH. Kurka pulie, . AIALEAL. Karka-pulie maramt TAIL Ifecla of NEILGIIEBRIES. Wads. chinta chettut Tr.L.
i A tall tree, growing in Ceylon up to 1500 feet, grows also in Travancore, in the forests of Malabar; is very abundant in Tenasserim, and very common in Siam and Cambodia. It is common in all the western forests of the Madras Presidency. A semi-tmnsparent pigment exudes from the trunk, very adhesive, but quite unsuitable as a paint ; the acid rinds of the ripe fruit aro eaten, and in Ceylon aro dried and eaten as a condiment with enrries. It yields an excellent, straight-grained, lemon - coloured, slightly elastic wood, which is easily worked, and would answer for common fumiture.—Ilorb. ; Thwaites ; Beddome.
Garcinia cornea, Linn., of E. Bengal and Burtna, has a heavy brown-eoloured wood, and yields a sort of gamboge.
Garcinia cowa, Roxb. ii. p. 622.
Toung-tha-lai, . . Bung. I Cowa, Rum.
Toung-da-lai, . . „ I This tree grows in Asstun, Andamans, Bengal, Chittagong, and Burma. It is of a middle size, and handsome ; it yields an inferior sort of gam boge, and tho fruit, edible, though not the most palatable.
Garcinia dulcis, Kurz, a tree of tho Andamans, with a close-grained hanl wood.
Garcinia heterandra, 1Vall., is the G. elliptica, I Wan. and Kurz, and the Tha-nat-tau of the hills of Burma up to 3000 feet. It yields a superior kind of gamboge..
Garcima lancemfolia, Roxb., the G. purpurea, TVall., and the Kirindur of Sylhet. Grows in Assam, Chittagong, and Sylhet.
Garcinia lomceroides, T. And., is the G. succi folk, Kurz, of the swamp forests of Pegu. Yields a gamboge, but scanty and inferior.
Garcinia mangostana, Linn., mangosteen.
Mungeestun of BOMBAY. Manggusta, . , MALAY. Men-gu, Young -zalai, BUR. Blanggosta, . , t Manggisi, Bugus of . CEL- Manggis Malay of Bahn Shan-chuh kwo, . Java, . . . . SUNDA.
Manggos, . . LAMPONG. Mangu, . . . . „ A prolific tree of the Malay Peninsula and the Archipelago, which yields the mangosteen, the most palatable of all known fruits. It is a very handsome tree, the foliage which is large and opposite, being of the darkes't shining green. The fruit is a drupe as large as a moderate apple ; is composed of an outer skin of a soft and fibrous nature, brownish-red or dark purple on the out side, but when cut, of a bright crimson; the snow white pulp which envelopes the seeds, lying within this, has an appearance no less beautiful to the eye, than the flavour is grateful to the palate. Its characteristic quality is extreme delicacy of flavour, without being rich or luscious. When cultivated, as in the peninsula of Malacca, it fruits twice a year, being ripe in July and December, yielding 1000 fruits ; it grows in perfection as far as 14° N. of the equator, and 7° S. of it. A con genial proportion of heat and moisture throughout the year seems much more requisite than soil or latitude for the successful growth of this fruit. The coat or rind of the mangosteen fruit, and the bark of the katapping or wild almonds (Termin alia catappa), are used for dyeing black, also in dysentery. It has been introduced into Travancore. —Crawfurd's Diet.; Low's Sarawak ; Marsden's Sumatra, p. 97 ; Roxb. p. 618 ; Voigt; Gamble. —Gareinia morella, Desrous.