Salix.] LXXI. SALICINE^E. 463 



Vera. Bed, bet, bent, baishi, Hindi ; Laila, bains, bhainsh, N.W. India. 

 Local n. : Badha, Pb. plains ; Bis, bish, beis, bltsa, Inn, bidu, kschme, bdk- 

 sliel, magsher, safedar, Pb. Himalaya ; Yir, Kashmir ; Bilsa, Oudh ; Pani 

 jama, Bengal ; Wallunj, bacha, Bombay ; Momahha, Burm. Bed is the 

 Persian name for willow ; no Sanscrit name is known. 



A small or moderate-sized tree, extremities with long silky hairs. Leaves 

 lanceolate, rarely ovate-lanceolate, 4-6 in. long, serrulate with minute ser- 

 ratures, glaucous beneath, glabrous when full-grown, or with a few soft 

 adpressed hairs, often long persistent and subcoriaceous ; main lateral 

 nerves numerous, prominent. Flowers after the leaves, catkins on leafy 

 peduncles; scales pale, those of the female catkins deciduous. Male catkins 

 sweet-scented, lax, drooping, 2-3, sometimes 4 in. long, rachis, scales and 

 base of filaments hairy; fl. 5-10-androus; stamens free, anthers minute, 

 elliptic. Fruit catkins lax ; capsules 2 lines long, on slender pedicels 

 half the length of capsule or longer, often in groups or half whorls of 3-4, 

 glabrous or hairy, mostly rugose when ripe, ovoid, base often subglobose, 

 narrowed into a short style with 2 spreading, generally entire stigmas ; 

 gland semicircular, many times shorter than pedicel, seeds 4-6. Andersson 

 describes the capsules as " glaberrimae." Wight (ichnostachya) and Bed- 

 dome figure them as pubescent, and I have found them hairy in several 

 cases. Roxburgh describes them as 4-seeded, whence the name, which 

 Andersson retains on account of the arrangement of the capsules (" capsulae 

 subquaternatim collects "). 



Common on river-banks and in moist places nearly throughout India ; in 

 Sindh and the plains of the Panjab only planted, except near the banks of the 

 Chenab, and other Himalayan rivers. Sub-Himalayan tract and outer ranges of 

 the Himalaya, west to the Indus, ascending to 6000, and at times to 7000 ft. 

 Ascends to 7000 ft. on the mountains of South India. Java. Often gregarious. 

 R. Thompson mentions a forest of great extent in the swamps of Dharmapur 

 in Baraich. Cultivated in Afghanistan. In North India the leaves are shed in 

 Dec. and Jan., the new foliage appearing Feb.-March. In Burma I have seen 

 it leafless during the rains. It flowers in autumn and the cold season, but also 

 in March and April. The seeds in this as in the other willows ripen soon after 

 flowering. Attains 30-40 ft., with a straight trunk, hollow when old, 5-6 ft., 

 and not rarely 10 ft., in girth. Bark in. thick, grey brown or blackish, rough 

 with broad shallow, irregular vertical furrows, and irregularly-shaped plates 

 between the furrows. Where the tree grows near water, particularly if subject 

 to inundation, the lower part of the stem gets covered, often 2-3 ft. high, with 

 numerous small rootlets. 



Sapwood large, whitish, heartwood distinct, of dark -brown colour (R. 

 Thompson). The Burma wood weighs 37 lb. (D.B. List of 1862). Not much 

 used. The charcoal has been used in the manufacture of gunpowder. Baskets 

 are made of the twigs, and the leaves are given as cattle-fodder, the tree being 

 often lopped for that purpose. According to Dalzell (Bombay Fl. Suppl. 82), 

 the bark is used as a febrifuge ; it is, however, believed not to contain any salicine 

 (Pharm. Ind. 213). 



S. pyrina, Wall. ; DC. Prodr. xvi. ii. 193, from Nepal, is very similar, only 

 more hairy, and the capsules more elongated. 



2. S. acmophylla, Boiss. ; DC. Prodr. 195. Vern. Bed, Afg. ; Bada, 

 Insu, Pb. Himalaya. 



