THE BIG BANYAN OF KEY WEST, FLA, 



By MRS. R, A, ELLIS 



NO NATURAL growth in the 

 United States has attracted mure 

 admiring attention from travelers 

 who see it than the big Banyan, or 

 Wild Fig tree, in front of the army post 

 at Key West. 



This island-town, the sonthernmost 

 under our flag, is quaintly interesting 

 in every way ; and its avenues, lined 

 with gracefully waving cocoa palms, 

 wide-branching tamarinds, tall sapo- 

 dilloes, and Cuban laurels, hold visitors 

 in a continuous state of ecstatic admira- 

 tion as they drive or go by car from 

 end to end of this seventeen-mile-long 

 rock thrown up in the Mexican Gulf. 



Hut when we turn out by the bar- 

 racks and rest under the shade of this 

 vast spreading Banyan tree, wonderful 

 gift of the Orient to the Occident, si- 

 lence is the first tribute we pay its 

 beauty and charm. 



Here is the fig-tree of the East. The 

 prophet made us accjuainted with it 

 when he promised. "Thou shalt rest 

 under thine own vine and fig tree." and 

 in this pleasant shade, deep and wide, 

 we begin to. comprehentl the signifi- 

 cance of such a promise, especially to 

 the sun-weary Eastern peoples. 



The name Banyan, attaching to it 

 because such trees were originallx- used 

 as bazaars or marts by the early Hindu 



merchants — "banians," in their lan- 

 guage, who traded by caravan from the 

 ports to the interior — came long ago to 

 be used popularly, and now we seldom 

 hear another. Yet it is really the fig- 

 tree, the Ficus Bengalensis. 



Here is indeed a "forest in a single 

 tree." Slender roots, like feelers, are 

 being continually thrown out from its 

 lateral branches. These speedily find 

 and grasp the soil, and soon are sturdy 

 new trunks, for the stancher support 

 of the ever-expanding crown. 



In India, the tree has long been 

 planted extensively for shade, and the 

 Key Westers are now trying experi- 

 ments with it for the same purpose. It 

 is easy to see how valuable it will prove 

 amid tropic heats, being of compara- 

 tively rapid growth and frequently cov- 

 ering a space of 300 feet in diameter, 

 and easily attaining a height of eighty 

 feet. The fruit is merely the size of a 

 cherry, and of little value. 



Nature here shows another of her co- 

 quettish inconsistencies. Why shouldn't 

 she have fastened her huge, dangerous- 

 looking clutters of cocoanuts among 

 these wide, substantial branches, and 

 hung the light bunches of figs, or 

 cherries, up there in the plumy crown 

 of the swaying palm? 



393 



