BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 287 



green with red spots. It is probable that Major Forbes may 

 have a drawing of this very tree. 



Further Notes on the Banyan. 

 (Tab. XIII. XIV.) 



Captaui Champion lost no time in writing to Major For- 

 bes, asking him for a copy, if he had such a drawing, for me. 

 " He has kindly sent me one," writes Captain Champion in 

 his recent letter to me, " with the following account, which is 

 so graphic, that I transcribe it verbatim." (See Tab. XIII.) 



" We were inspected on Saturday," says IMajor Forbes, 

 " so after that vvas over, I looked through my box of 

 sketches, and was glad to find one of the Nuga tree you 

 mention, viz., at Marakona on the road to Kandy from 

 Matalai. I believe it is correct, as the tree then was. At 

 that time (now ten years ago), none of the shoots were allowed 

 to reach the ground, being always nipped off by the nails of 

 an old woman who regularly swept all round the tree every 

 day. This was no point of religion in ilie old wify, but 

 merely an occupation by which she got a ?ew pice from trav- 

 ellers who rested under its shade. In this sketch, Dombura 

 peak is seen beyond the lowest branch. The clammy white 

 juice, has, I believe, all the properties of India rubber.* Tfie 

 Nuga is not held sacz-ed by the Boodhists, although the 

 Brahmins respect it. All the Buddhas choose different Bo 

 trees, and the Ficus religiom is that which Gantama (the 

 Buddha now worshipped,) selected, and it is therefore 

 now called the " Bo-gaha," par excellence. It was under 

 one of that species he reclined and meditated during his 

 sojourn in the wilderness, and he had his call. — The ancient 

 city of Amuradhapoona, in Ceylon, owed much of its celeb- 

 rity to the Bo-tree, still existing there, and brought from 

 the continent b.c. 307. It was a branch of the one under 

 which Gantama reclined when he became a Buddha. All 



* As is the case with the juice of all of the Genus Ficus. The East 

 Indian jF. elastica, now so common in our greenhouses and stores, is the 

 species that yields a great deal of Caoutchouc of commerce — Ed. 



