846 Kela.--Musa Paradisiaca. The Plantain or Banana. The tree is straight, about the height of a spear. Its leaves, when young, come out in the form of a round ruler, and are soft as satin, and much resembling it, with cross marks resembling the plaits of cloth. The leaf when expanded is very long and broad. Its flower is a hard substance, of a pyramidal shape, and covered with leaves of a dark-red color. Every tree which has flowered bears 70 or 80 plantains, formed in distinct rows round a centre stem, and the tree bears only once. And the fruit ripe, the tree must be cut down, to leave room for others to spring up from the same root. There are many kinds of this fruit. The best kind is small, and called Imrutbean; and the people of India have said that the camphor is produced from it: but those who say so are ignorant, the camphor tree is very different. Its root is tonic; beneficial in disorders of bile, blood, and mucus, and in gonorrhoea; but it weakens aphrodisia. The fruit is sweet, cool, moist, and heavy; increases flatulence and mucus; useful in disorders of bile, blood, wind, and heat of the chest. A. Mooz. The natives of India dress the unripe fruit with meat, or even dress it alone; and the Hindoos dress the heart of the branches for food. This I have found very effectual as an aphrodisiac and for increasing semen, and as a tonic to the brain. It weakens the stomach, and is heavy; its corrector is cardamum seed. The Yunani physicians say, that its correctors are honey, gum, and ginger. 847 Keetkarode.--A name for Baraicund. 848 Keekur or Babool. "Acacia Arabica, W. Babool, H. Barbura, S. Babool ka Goond (the gum), H. The bark, like that of most of the Acacias, is a powerful astringent, and is used as a substitute for Oak bark in tanning by leather-manufacturers in India. Gomme Arabique, F. Arabischen Gummi, G. Gomma Arabica, I. Vullam pisin, Tam." A common prickly tree of the jungles; its leaves very numerous and small; it is of two kinds, a large and a small. The young trees have very numerous prickles, the old trees have fewer; its bark kept in the mouth relieves cough. Its leaves heated and applied to the eye removes heat and inflammation; both kinds are astringent, hot, and pungent, useful in cough, mucus, and diseases proceeding from mucus; restrain laxatives of the bowels, and are useful in piles. The young leaves infused for a night in water, in the morning bruised in the water, and this drank, will be found very useful in gonorrhoea and itchiness of the bladder. 849 Keet or Keetie. The refuse or scoriÊ of iron; it is sweet, pungent, and hot; beneficial in wind, worms, cholicks, seminal weakness, and swellings.