The Universal Herbal: Garcinia Mangostana; Mangostan, or Mangosteen.

The Universal Herbal;
or botanical, medical and agricultural dictonary.
Containing an account of All the known Plants in the World, arranged according to the Linnean system. Specifying the uses to which they are or may be applied, whether as food, as medicine, or in the arts and manufactures.
With the best methods of propagation, and the most recent agricultural improvements.
collected from indisputable Authorities.
Adapted to the use of the farmer - the gardener - the husbandman - the botanist - the florist - and country housekeepers in general.
By Thomas Green.
Vol. I
Liverpool.
Printed at the Caxton Press by Henri Fisher.
Printer in Ordinary to His Majesty.
1824Leaves ovate; peduncles one-flowered. The mangostan rises with an upright stem nearly twenty feet high, sending out many branches on every side, which are placed opposite, and stand oblique to each other, and not at right angles; the bark of the branches is smooth, of a gray colour, but on the tender shoots it is green, and that of the trunk is of a darker colour, and full of cracks; the leaves are entire, seven or eight inches long, and about half as much in breadth as in the middle, gradually diminishing to both ends, of a lucid green on their upper side, and of an olive colour on their under, having a prominent midrib through the middle, with several small veins running from that to both sides of the leaf; the flower is like that of a single rose, composed of four roundish petals, which are thick at their base, but are thinner towards their ends, they are of a dark red colour; the fruit is round, the size of a middling orange; the shell of the fruit is like that of the pomegranate, but softer, thicker, and fuller of juice; it is green at first, but changes to a dark brown, with some yellowish spots; the inside of the fruit is of a rose-colour, and divided into several parts by thin partitions, as in oranges, where the seeds are lodged, surrounded by a soft juicy pulp of a delicious flavour, partaking of the strawberry and the grape, which is esteemed one of the richest fruits in the world. As these trees naturally grow in the form of parabolas, and the branches are well garnished with large shining green leaves, they have an elegant appear ance, and afford a kindly shade in hot countries, where they are highly deserving of cultivation, and indeed in any coun try where there is warmth enough to ripen the fruit, which is esteemed the most delicious of all the East Indian fruits. A large quantity may be eaten without any inconvenience, as it is the only fruit which sick people are allowed to eat. It is given with safety in almost every disorder; and we are told, that Dr. Solander, in the last stage of a putrid fever, at Batavia, found himself insensibly recovering by sucking this delicious and refreshing fruit; the pulp has a most happy mixture of the tart and sweet, and is no less salutary than pleasant, for which reason, in hot climates, it is allowed with the sweet orange in any quantity, to those who are afflicted with fevers, either of the putrid or inflammatory kind: the dried bark is used with success in the dysentery and tenesmus; and an infusion is esteemed a good gargle for a sore mouth, or ulcers in the throat. The Chinese dyers use this bark for the ground or basis of a black colour, in order to fix it the firmer. — Native of the Molucca Islands, whence it has been transplanted to Java and Malacca. The head is so fine and regular, and the leaves so beautiful, that it is looked upon at Batavia as the tree most proper for adorning a garden, and affording an agreeable shade. As there are but few of the seeds which come to perfection, (for the greatest part of them are abortive,) so most of these which have been brought to Europe have failed; therefore the surest way to obtain the plants, is to sow the seeds in tubs of earth in the country, and when the plants have obtained strength, they may be brought to Europe, but there should be great care taken in their passage to screen them from salt water, and the spray of the sea, as also not to give them much water, especially in a cool or temperate climate, for they are very impatient of wet. When the plants arrive in Europe, they should be carefully transplanted, each into a separate pot filled with light kitchen-garden earth, and plunged into the tan-bed, observing to shade them from the sun till they have taken new root; then they must be treated in the same manner as the other tender plants from hot coun tries. It may be increased in England by cuttings, in the same manner as is directed for Gardenia.