621 Sembill.--"Bombax Heptaphyllum. Silk-cotton Tree." A large tree of India; its leaves like the Jamin, but broader and more long, about half the breadth of the peepul and twice the length; in thickness, color, and mark, the same. Its flowers resemble the Bukaen when small, but when more advanced, it becomes more like the goolur, and when full grown, the flowers are as large as a large lime. It then spreads and becomes red; after this it again closes; the flower then falls, and leaves the seed vessel. The capsule is twice as large as that of the Mudar, and when ripe, is filled with cotton. I have ate of the flower when at its middle growth, and found it pleasant to the taste, but it produces flatulence. It is cool and aphrodisiac; induces corpulence; is astringent, and cures boils and eruptions, Juzam, and disorders of the blood and bile: some call its gum Moocherus, the author of the Topha for instance; but Moocherus is the gum or flower of the Phoopul tree. In the opinion of the physicians of India, the Sembill is a powerful medicine as an aphrodisiac. If the juice of the root be made into sherbet with equal part of sugar, it will increase age by restoring the vital energy, increase understanding and semen; the larger and older the tree, and the thicker the root, the greater its strength as a medicine. The small roots are cut into slices, dried on a rope, and sold; in this state, it resembles Bhamun Soorkh. Ascetics have said, that the perpendicular root of a large full grown Sembill tree, cut in pieces, dried and reduced to a powder is powerfully aphrodisiac, in the quantity of 4 direms daily. I have taken this powder to the quantity of one tolah with sugar, and have also prescribed it with advantage; it strengthens the stomach, and is gently laxative. If given with honey, I conceive that its virtues will be increased. The author of the celebrated work Ahmed Ben Shirazee has told the following story, which I shall relate as nearly as may be in his own words. "I was," says he, "on a journey, when coming to a village in India, and being very thirsty, I met an old man from whom I requested water to drink; I observed that this old man had a peculiarly healthy appearance, and seemed plump and stout; he had a young woman with him, whom he sent to his house for water, and who brought it me to drink. I then asked him whether that young girl was his daughter; he laughing answered that she was his wife, and that he had three others equally young. I was somewhat surprised at this, and asked him if this was not too many for him; he replied no! More and more astonished, I asked him if this was really the case; he avowed it to be so. I then questioned him how he came to be endowed with so much strength, and how old he was; he told me that his age was 110 years, and related the following facts: That when 50 years' old he had already become aged and feeble, and was so much decayed in constitution, that he seldom rose from his bed, and when he did so,