166 SALIC ACEM. [ SALIX. 



fleshy or glandular. MALE flowers : Stamens 2, rarely 3 or more ; 

 filaments filiform, free, rarely connate ; anthers usually small. 

 FEM. flowers : Ovary sessile or stipitate ; placentas 2 ; ovules 

 usually 4-8 ; style usually short, with 2 short retuse or 2-fid arms. 

 Fruit, a 2-valved capsule. Seeds with penicillate funicle ; albumen 

 none ; cotyledons plano-convex ; radicle inferior. Species about 

 160, mostly in N. Temp, regions. 



Stamens 4 or more ; flowers appearing after the leaves : 



Leaves lanceolate, serrulate, capsule ovoid, 

 on long pedicels . . . . 1. S. tetrasperma. 



Leaves linear-lanceolate, entire ; capsule 



ovoid-lanceolate, on short pedicels . 2. S. acmophylla. 



1. S. tetrasperma, Eoxb. Cor. PL i, 66, t. 97; Fl. Ind. Hi, 573 ; 

 Royle III. 343 ; Brandis For. Fl. 462, t. 58 ; Ind. Trees 636 ; F. B. 

 I. v, 626 ; Watt E. D. ; Kanjildl For. Fl. (ed. 2), 387 ; Gamble Man. 

 685 ; Collett Fl Siml. 478 ; Prain Beng. PL 989 ; Coolce Fl. Bomb., 

 ii, 661. Vern. Bed, bent, baislii (Hind.), laila, bains (N. W. Ind.), 

 bilsa, bhiusa (Oudh), jalmdla (Dehra Dun), besa (Bundelkhand), 

 bhynsh (Bijnor). 



A medium -sized tree or shrub. Bark rough with deep vertical furrows. 

 Young parts silky, the branchlets and underside of leaves sometimes 

 pubescent. Leaves 3-6 in. long, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 

 glaucous beneath, usually regularly serrulate ; petioles J-l in. long. 

 Male catkins 2-4 in. long. ^Flowers scented. Stamens 5-10. Fern, 

 catkins 3-5 in. long. Capsules glabrous, long-stalked, style short, 

 with two spreading, usually entire stigmas. Seeds 4-6. 



Abundant within the area, especially on the banks of streams and on 

 moist swampy ground. It is common in Dehra Dun and on the 

 Siwalik range, and along the Sub- Himalayan tracts of Rohilkhand 

 and N. Oudh to the Gorakhpur district, and it occurs also in 

 Bundelkhand and in the Ajmer district. The new foliage appears 

 during Feb. and March, and it flowers from Feb. to April and some- 

 times again in the autumn. DISTKIB. : More or less throughout 

 tropical and subtropical India from the Punjab eastwards to Manipur 

 and Burma, ascending the Himalayan valleys up to 6,000 ft., and 

 southwards to Travancore and to the Malay Peninsula and Java. It 

 is not found in Ceylon nor in the more arid tracts of W. and Central 

 India. The soft reddish porous wood is used for making gunpowder 



