Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 1).djvu/598

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Syn.: — P. sylvatica, Roxb. 403. Cerasus pudum, Wall.

Sans. : —Padmaka, padmâksh.

Vern.: — Paddam, pâya (Hind.); Kongki (Lepcha); Chamiari amalguch (Pb.); Padma kâstha, padmaka (Mar.); Padma kathi, padmak (Guz.).

Habitat : — Temperate Himalaya, from Garhwal to Sikkim and Bhotan.

A middle-sized or large, deciduous tree. Bark pale-brown to dark-brown, shining, peeling off in thin horizontal shining layers. Wood moderately hard, scented ; sapwood white ; heart-wood nearly glabrous. Leaves conduplicate in bud, glossy, ovate, long acuminate, sharply serrate; blade 3-5, petiole ½in. long, one or more conspicuous glands on petiole. Stipules pinnately or palmately divided, the divisions linear, glandular- fimbriate. Flowers white, pink or crimson, appearing before the leaves in umbellate fascicles, approximate near the ends of branchlets ; pedicels slender, as long as or longer than the Calyx. Calyx turbinate, lobes ovate, acute.

Fruit, a drupe oblong or ellipsoid, obtuse at both ends. Flesh, scanty yellow, or reddish, ½-2/3in. long, acid, somewhat astringent. Stone ovoid, bony, rugose and furrowed, supported by the calyx base, from which the tube separates after flowering.

Use : — The kernel is used in stone and gravel. The bark contains amygdalin, and the smaller branches are sold in the bazaars as substitutes for hydrocyanic acid in native practice (Watt).

The seeds of the Bird cherry growing in the Himalayas yield a peculiar oil remarkable for its siccative properties. A sample of the freshly expressed oil gave the iodine value (Hubl) 172. It dried to a skin in glass more rapidly than boiled linseed oil. The pressed cake and seeds distilled with water afforded considerable quantities of hydrocyanic acid and benzoyl aldehyde (oil of bitter almonds.)

Habitat : — Western temperate Himalaya ; cultivated or indigenous from Garhwal to Kashmir.