Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/482

koto (Nepal) ; Gniet (Lepcha) ; Teadong (Bhutia) ; Kolan, chîr, salla, sapin, kolon, kolain, seed = kalghoza, chalhatti (U.P.) ; Dhûp (Oudh); Chîr, salla, sapin, kolon, kolan, kolais (Kumaon); Salla, sarl (Kashmir) ; Chîr chil, drâb chîr, nashtar, nakhtar, ranzuru, gula, thansa, anandar, saral, oleo-resin = ganda-biroza, purified oleo-resin = biroza, sat-bîroza (Pb.) ; Nashtar, nakhtar Pushtu); oleo-resin = Gandah-birozah (Bomb.) ; Oleo-resin = Birozeh (Pers.).

Habitat :— Drier Himalayan slopes, from 2,000 to 7,000 feet above sea level.

A large, more or less deciduous tree, eminently gregarious, attaining 100-110ft., but often stunted and gnarled. Trunk usually naked, rarely 12ft. girth. Bark l-2in. thick, reddish-brown outside, dark-red within, cut by deep fissure into large plates of irregular size, but more or less rounded and on an average about 6in. across. Wood moderately hard ; sap wood white ; heartwood light reddish-brown. (Gamble.) Branches symmetrically whorled, high up the trunk, forming a rounded head of light foliage. Leaves 9-1 2in. long, slender, nearly triquetrous ; sheath ½-lin. long, greyish-brown, imbriate, persistent. Male catkins ⅓-½in. long, cylindric ; cones on short stiff stalks, spreading or recurved, solitary or in whorls of 2-5, 4-8in. long, diam. 3-5in. ; scales 1-2 by ⅔in. ; beak thick, pyramidal, pointed and somewhat recurved. Seeds oblong, -lin. long, with the unequal-sided, thin, membranous wing, which latter is rather longer than seed. Cotyledons about 12.

Uses : — The people of Upper India obtain from it tar and turpentine. The former is said to be equal to that obtained by a more refined process in Europe ; and the turpentine is stated merely to require attention to render it equal to the imported article. Dr. Hugh Cleghorn (Jour. Agri.-Hort Soe. of India, 1865, vol. xiv., p. i., App. p. 7) speaks of the product being of a superior description, equal, in fact, to Swedish tar. In an economical point of view, this subject may be worthy of attention. (Ph. Ind.).^[1]