FicuS. MONOECrA MONANURIA. 541 



paired, axillary, sessile, when ripe llie size and colour of a 

 middle sized, red cherry, downy. Calyx of the fruit three- 

 nerved. 



J^ote. Fig. 1. of Plukenet's 178th Table is a much better 

 figure of this tree than Flo-. 4. of the same table. 



The Bramins are partial to the leaves of this tree to make 

 their plates to eat ofl'; they are jointed together by inkles. 



Bird-lime is prepared from the tenacious milky juice 

 which every part of the tree yields in abundance on being 

 wounded. 



Birds eat the fruit, and the seeds grow the better for having 

 passed through them ; if they drop in the aloe of the leaves of 

 the Palmyra tree, ( Borassus JiaheWformh) they grow 

 and extend their descending parts so as in time to embrace 

 entirely the parent Palmyra, except its upper parts. In 

 very old ones the top thereof is just seen issuing from the 

 trunk of the Banyan as if it grew from thence, whereas it runs 

 down through its centre and has its roots in the ground, the 

 Palm being- the oldest. For such the Hindoos entertain a re- 

 ligious veneration, saying it is a holy marriage instituted by 

 Providence. 



25. F. elastica. Roxb. 



Leaves from oval to oblong, pointed, thick, firm and glos- 

 sy. FrnH in axillary pairs, sessile, oval, smooth, the size of 

 an olive. Stipules nearly as long as the leaves, smooth and 

 rosy. 



Kasmeer, the vernacular name by which this tree is known 

 to the inhabitants of the Pundua, and J?<ntipoor moun- 

 tains, which bound the province of Silhet on the north, where 

 it is indigenous, and grows to the size of a full grown mango 

 tree ; that is fully as large as the great Maple, or Sycamore 

 that grows in England. The season at which the young fruit 

 appears, or at least when I procured it, was May and June ; 

 and they were ripe in August and September. Every part 

 abounds with rich milky juice, which furnis'hes about one 

 third of its weight of Caoutchouc. 



