1218 INDUN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



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, 

 ^oung shoots and young leaves silky. Bark ^in. 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 -§~fin., 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 i-iin. 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-l|in. 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 vield on distillation a scented water 



