Volume 10 Number 8 



The Plant World 



"R /Ilbaga3ine of ©cncral JSotan^ 

 AUGUST, 1907 



VISITS TO SOME BOTANIC GARDENS ABROAD. 



By Dr. Peiir Olssen-Seffer. 



(Continuation.) 

 Numerous are the interesting and curious tropical trees and 

 jdants which can be seen in the Peradeniya Garden. One which 

 deserves special mention is the Bo tree (Ficus reUgiosa). This 

 tree is sacred to the Buddhists and is always found growing near 

 tlie temples. The Buddhist religion forbids the cutting of a 

 branch or uprooting of a seedling of the Bo tree, regardless of 

 position or locality. The oldest historical tree in the world is a 

 Bo tree planted at Anuradhapura, an ancient city of Ceylon. 

 This tree was planted 28 S years before Christ, and is therefore 

 now 2,195 years old. The story of this identical tree is a curi- 

 ously early instance of that much-used modern term — woman's 

 rights. A missionary, Mahindo, had converted the Rajah and 

 people of Anuradhapura to Buddhism, and the effects of his 

 zealous preaching were by no means confined to the male sex. 

 The queen and thousands of her country women became earnest 

 followers of the new cult ; they begged to be allowed to take the 

 vows of self-devotion. These vows, however, Mahindo declared 

 himself unable to administer to their sex and he suggested that 

 his sister Sanghaniitta, an abbess in India, should be sent for to 

 admit the novices. She responded to the call, and with her the 

 king of Patna sent a branch of the sacred Bo tree under which 

 Gautama sat on the day that he attained Buddhadiood. The story 

 of this tree's life has been handed down in a continuous series of 

 authentic chronicles. It was carefully tended and was spared 

 amid all the different invasions which ruined the great city of 

 Anuradhapura. It is now annually visited and venerated by 



