S3 BOTANY. 



an avenue tree " in southern India. Perhaps our tree will 

 be referred to the same species, F. Benjamina ; but though 

 much resembling it, there is still a difference that appears 

 to be constant, and therefore specific. The Benjamina has 

 the fruit smooth on short stems, while the Tenasserim tree 

 has rougli fruit and stemless. There is a difference too "in 

 the leaves, but it is only slight, and not alone sufficient to 

 establish a species. Wight, in uniting F. nitida with 

 F. Benjamina, characterizes the united species thus : 



11 Ficus Benjamina, Leaves oval and obovate, obtuse, 

 polished : fruit axilliary, paired, smooth." 



The Tenasserim tree may be thus characterized : 

 Ficus Bcnjaminoides. Leaves oval, suddenly acuminate, 

 smooth, polished above ; fruit axilliary, paired, sessile, 

 rough. 



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ASPEN-LEAVED PEEPUL. 



The peepul is quite an ornamental tree but very scarce 

 in these Provinces, though usually supposed to be one of 

 the most abundant. The peepul of the residents, but not 

 of the Burmese who recognize the distinction, is an allied 

 but different species of ficus. It is the most sacred of 

 trees with the Buddhists, for it was under this tree that 

 Gaudama slept, and dreamed that his bed was the vast 

 earth, and the Himalaya mountains his pillow, while his 

 left arm reached to the eastern ocean, his right to the 

 western ocean, and his feet to the great south sea. This 

 dream he interpreted to mean that he would soon become 

 a Buddha ; and it was while seated beneath the same tree, 

 that his dream was verified. — He vanquished the forces of 

 Mara,* the Indian Cupid, and became divine. 

 Ficus rcligiosa. 



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