Tamarind
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Tamarind. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the Tamarindus indica. Leaves abruptly pinnate, with many pairs of small leaflets; flowers in racemes; calyx straw-colored; petals yellow, streaked with red, filaments purple, anthers brown. It is an evergreen tree, 80 feet high by 25 in circumference, cultivated in India as far N. as the Jhelum. The wood, which is yellowish-white, sometimes with red streaks, is hard and close-grained. It is very difficult to work, and is used in India for turning wo wheels, mallets, oil and sugar mills, etc. It furnishes excellent charcoal for the manufacture of gunpowder. The pulp of the legumes pressed in syrup is a delicious confection. The flowers and fruit are used in India as an astringent or as a mordant in dyeing, especially with safflower; the leaves furnish a yellow dye. The seeds yield a clear, bright, fluid oil, with an odor like that of the linseed; their powder mixed with thin SEED POD TAMARIND: BRANCH IN FLOWER seed-pod section glue makes a strong cement for wood. The West Indian and South American variety of T. indica (variety occidentalis) has legumes only 3 times as long as broad, whereas the Indian tree has them 6 times as long. The tamarinds sold in the United States are chiefly West Indian tamarinds. They differ from the Black or East Indian tamarinds, of which the preserved pulp is black. In pharmacy tamarinds are used as gentle laxatives; they are refrigerant from the acids which they contain, and, when infused, constitute a cooling drink in fevers. They enter into the Confectio sennæ. In India the seeds are given in dysentery, etc.; in the Mauritius a decoction of the bark is given in asthma.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
tam'a-rind, a tree of the pea family, native to the East Indies. It is a noble shade tree, thirty to eighty feet in height, apparently resembling our locust trees. It has long leaves of thirty to forty leaflets, and wreaths of fragrant yellow flowers. The thick pods are three to six inches long and contain a sweet-acid pulp much used in the tropics of both continents in the preparation of delicacies and a cooling drink. Preserves also are made of the pulp. The Tamarind yields a fine, close-grained, yellowish cabinet wood of value.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The botany in both accounts still holds — Tamarindus indica remains a single species, its pods still yielding the sweet-acid pulp both entries praise. The largest correction concerns origin: Aiton's called it "native to the East Indies" in 1910, but botanists now place its wild home in tropical Africa, from Sudan south, with India a very ancient introduction rather than the birthplace. The pharmacy has moved on too: the gentle laxative Confectio sennae that Collier's cited in 1921 has long since dropped out of official use, while tamarind's commercial life has grown enormously as a food acid — in Worcestershire sauce, Indian sambar and Thai cooking — with India the leading producer. Collier's separate West Indian "variety occidentalis" is no longer treated as a distinct botanical variety.
Written for this edition, 2026.