SALIX, the willow genus of plants. There are about 50 species in Eastern and Southern Asia. .The earliest mention of the willow tree is in the Pentateuch, where the Israelites were directed at the institution of the feast of tabernacles to take the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook, and to rejoice before the Lord their God seveia days.' At a later period, the Psalmist describes the captives as lamenting— By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down ; yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive re quired of us a song ; and they that wasted ns required of us mirth.' Willows are valuable for economic purposes. . S. Babylonica and S. .tEgyptiaea occur in gardens in Upper India. S. Lindleyana, or dwarf willow, occurs at 12,000 to 13,000 feet on the Himalaya ; S. chita and S. rotundifolia in Kanawar. In Tibet, the whole plough except the point, which is iron, is generally made of willow. In Afghanistan willow wood is generally used for building, as insects do not attack it. OH the Chenab, pails, etc., are rudely cut from single blocks of the willow; and, accord ing to Mooreroft, combs t,o remove the flue goat's hair from the animal's back are made of this in Ladakh. The wood in Tibet and Spiti is employed for boarding,. The small twigs are used for basket
work, and the leaves are highly valued in winter as food for sheep. One of the substances known as manna the bed-khisht, used as a laxative, is said to be a product on a species of willow of Khorasan and Turkestan. S. flabellaris, Ands., S. hastata, L., and S. oxycarpa, Ands., are found at various elevations in the Panjab Himalaya and Ladakh from 6000 to 15,000feet ; and the leaves, etc., of several are used fU3 fodder. In Kashmir the willow is used largely for basket-making ; in Tibet many of the houses are made of willow wattle and daub. Twig bridges of willow are men tioned in Spiti, Zanskar, and Ladakh, where Parrotia is not found. In Kashmir, willow twigs are employed as tooth-sticks. There also, and still more on the Chenab and in Ladakh, the trees are severely and systematically lopped, the young /shoots and bark of the larger removed by hand, ' being used as fodder.—Cleghorn ; Hoyle ; O'Sh.; I Hooker, Him. Jour. ; Stewart ; Honig.
Salix acmophyalla, Boiss.
Blau, . . HIND., PANJ. I Budha, . . . SINDI.. Bedh, . . . PUSHTU.
A moderate-sized tree of Persia, Afghanistan, N.W. Himalaya, and TJpper Sind. Wood tough and elastic, used in small carpentry ; weight, 37 lbs. to the cubic foot. Leaves as fodder.—J. A. Murray.
Salix /Egyptiaca, Linn.