1218 
INDIAN 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 i-|in., 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 |-|in. 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. 
Verm.: — 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 yield on distillation a scented water 
