Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/468
Habitat : — Himalayan Valleys, Sub-Himalayan tract and Siwaliks from the Ganges westward, Northern Punjab often cultivated. Afghanistan and Baluchistan.
A deciduous, middle-sized, handsome tree, quite glabrous, with flexuose branches, which break off easily from the stem, Young shoots and young leaves silky. Bark ½in. thick, rough, dark-brown, somewhat corky, deeply and irregularly vertically cleft. Wood soft, porous, even-grained ; sapwood white. Trunk attaining 7ft. girth ; branches often pendulous. Crown rounded. Leaves 2-8in. by ⅓-¾in., pale, those near the catkins much smaller, linear-lanceolate, upper caudate-acuminate, quite entire ; lower often sub-acute or mucronate, glabrous and glaucous when mature ; lateral nerves faint. Petiole ⅓-½in. Flowers after the leaves on short, leafy penduncles ; bracts ovate or oblong, concave, villous. Male catkins l-2in., cylindric, dense-fid. Female catkins lin., nodding with deciduous, long haired bracts. Stamens 4-6 ; anthers short, globose ; style short : stigmas 2, sessile entire, spreading. Capsule shortly stipitate, ovoid-oblong, glabrous. (Kanjilal.)
Use : — A decoction of the bark is used in Beluchistan as a febrifuge. (Murray.)
1205, S. Caprea, Linn., h.f.b.i., v. 629.
Vern.: — Bed mushk (Pb.) ; Khwagawala (Pushtu); Khilaf (Arab).
Habitat : — Cultivated in Robilkund and N.-W. India.
A large, deciduous shrub or small tree, 25-30ft., flowering before leafing. Trunk attaining 3-4ft. girth. Bark, dark-grey, or yellowish-brown, with irregular, longitudinal clefts and short cross clefts. Wood light-red, soft, even-grained. Leaves 2-4in., dark-green above, crenate, broadly elliptic or obovate, glabrous and more or less rugose above, grey, tomentose beneath; stipules large, reniform. Catkins densely silky, nearly sessile ; male sweet-scented, ovoid-oblong, very stout, erect, l-l½in. long ; bracts tipped black ; stamens 2, free. Female catkins 2-3in., slender, nodding ; bracts tipped with black. Capsules downy, shortly stipulate. Stigmas sub-sessile.
Uses :— The flowers yield on distillation a scented water