Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/472

Vern. : — Bangikat (Nepal); Sungribond (Lepcha) ; Garpipal (Kumaun) ; Chelun (Simla) ; Safeda, bagnu, asan, pahari pipal (Pb.) ; Palach (Pb.) ; Shodar (Pushtu); Piplás (corruption of Poplar), Biáon, Sharphárá, Tilaunja, Kapásil (Jamsar.)

Habitat : — Temperate Himalaya, from Kashmir to Bhotan.

A large, deciduous tree. Bark greenish-grey, smooth when young, brown, with deep vertical fissures when old. Wood grey or brownish-grey, soft. Buds viscid, lanceolate, the yellow resinous gum sometimes secreted in large masses. Leaves ovate-lanceolate, broad-ovate, as a rule finely ciliate along the edge, pale and often minutely pubescent beneath, denticulate, usually cordate, 3-6in. by 2½-4½in., 3-5-nerved ; lateral nerves 4-6 pairs above the basal, irregularly forked. Petiole 2-5in. long, compressed above. Flowers before the leaves or with young leaves in lateral catkins, raceme-like and drooping. Male catkins 2-4in. long, somewhat interrupted ; Perianth bell-shaped. Margins undulate. Stamens numerous, filaments free, short, slender ; bract fringed, early caducous, ⅓in. long. Female catkins 6-12in. long, lax in fruit. Pedicels as long as flowers. Ovary conical ; ovules along the centre of the valves. Stigmas 3-4, nearly sessile, spreading, 2 lobed, disk toothed. Capsule ⅓-½in. long, ovoid, 3-4-valved, glabrous ; seeds numerous. Stipes and hairs of the seeds as loog as the capsules. The female tree is common ; the male is very scarce.

Use: — The bark is occasionally used as a tonic stimulant and purifier of the blood. (Atkinson.)

Vern. : — Sufaida ; Bahan (Sind) Padar (Baluch) ; Patki (Brhui); Hodung (Ladak) ; Sufaida; Junglee bentee (Pb.) ; Bahân (Pushtu) ; Pada, padak (Afg.).

Habitat : — Common in the forest belt of Sindh along the Indus " Where subject to inundation, the lower part of the trunk often gets covered with short horn-like roots and shoots, hard spine-like processes are found projecting from the wood