BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 351 



Further Notes on the Banyan Tree. 



At the time the account given at p. 288 of this Journal was 

 printing, we had not access to Cordiner's J^escription of Cey- 

 lon; in the first volume, however, of that work, at p. 363, we 

 find so many remarks confirmatory of the confusion that lias 

 existed between the Ficus hidica and religiosa, that we tlo 

 not hesitate to present the following extracts ; — 



" The Banyan, Indian Fig, Aliamaruniy or Ficus Indica, 

 is a tree which attracts particular notice on account of one 

 distinguishing and remarkable property. Its horizontal 

 branches naturally extend to a great distance from the parent- 

 stem, and being unable to support their own ponderous 

 weight as they shoot forward, fibrous roots dip perpendicu- 

 larly from them, and after touching the ground, swell to the 

 size of massy pillars, and bear up the loaded boughs with the 

 utmost firmness. These stems are smooth columns, covered 

 with bark of a silver colour, and put forth no shoots. When 

 they first leave the tree, they are of a brownish hue, as 

 flexible as hemp, and wave in the air like ropes. x\fter 

 entering the earth, they become stationary, and are to be 

 found about the same tree of various sizes, some measuring 

 less than three inches, others upwards of eleven feet in cir- 

 cumference. As they at first draw their nourishment from 

 the tree, it is probable that they afterwards return the favour 

 by supplying it with new juices from the bountiful earth. 



*' The leaves are plain, entire, smooth-edged, neither 

 heart-shaped,* nor ending in a pointed extremity. A full- 

 grown leaf is five inches long, three and a half broad, and has 

 a footstalk upwards of one inch in length. They grow 

 alternately on each side of the branches, but not opposite to 

 one another. The fruit is of the size of a small cherry, of a 

 deep scarlet colour, and has a bright yellow circular spot 

 round that part of it which touches the tree. The flower, like 



* The leaves are retuse at the base, or slightly heart-shaped, but very 

 different indeed from those of F. religiosa. — Ed. 



