124 Dr. Noehden's Account of the Banyan-Tree. 



came nearer to the truth. The roots, that slioot out from the branches, are 

 no where so accurately described. They are thick * and twisted, lie says, 

 and distinguishable from the branches, from which they proceed, by a 

 lighter colour. And he adds a particular circumstance, namely, that they 

 are S/cfiuAAo/, two-leaved, that is, furnished with two leaves, or stijyuUp, as 

 modern botanists would call them, probably at the spot where the roots 

 issue from the branches. I have not seen this noticed in any modern 

 description, either botanical or other. The size of the leaf is perhaps the 

 only thing that is overrated : it equals, he says, a pelta, that is to say, a 

 small Thracian, or, as it is also called, Amazonian t shield. Modern bota- 

 nical accounts leprcsent the leaf as of about a span, that is to say, nine or 

 ten inches in length, whereas the pelta must have been more than double 

 that measure. The fruit is by modern botanists said to be of the size of a 

 hazel-nut ; and Theophrastus compares it to an ;'p;S;y.9ot, which seems to 

 have been a large pea, or a sort of kidney-bean. The river Acesines, near 

 which, he says, the tree grows, is supposed to be the Ravi, one of the four 

 or five streams that, flowing from the eastward, unite their waters with 

 the Indus. 



The account of Theophrastus is the foundation of Pliny's description, 

 which shall now follow. In speaking generally of India, this author re- 

 marks that that country' produces the largest animals ; and then he goes on 

 to sa.y,t " There also grow, according to report, trees of such extraordinary 



" five feet. Circumference of shadow at noon eleven hundred and sixteen feet. Circumference 

 " of the several stems, in number fifty or sixty, nine hundred and twenty-one." Now if some 

 trees, as is said in one place, have measured in circumference of tlie branches, upwards of a 

 thousand feet ; or if, as is stated in the note, the circumference of the shadow at noon is eleven 

 hundred and sixteen feet, it is not to be conceived how the diameter of the stem alone can be 

 from three hundred and sixty-three to three hundred and seventy-five feet, or its circumference 

 nine hundred and twenty-one. Tlie whole computation, I confess, is not clear to my view ; and 

 perhaps some error in the numbers may have taken place. 



* Mr. Marsden speaks of wliat Theophrastus calls the roots, in this manner, p. 163 : ■' The 

 " tree possesses the uncommon property of dropping roots or fibres from certain parts of its 

 " boughs, which, when they touch the earth, become new stums. These fibres look like ropes 

 " attached to tlie branches." 



f Pliny (Nat. Hist. XII. 11. p. 326. Vol.11, ed. Bip.) says: " Fo/iorum latiludu pe/la effigiem 

 " Amazonicce habet." Milton, in a passage to be quoted afterwards, calls this shield, Amazonian 

 targe. 



X Pliny, Nat. Hist. VII. 2. Vol.11, p. 9. ed. Bip. Maxima in India gignuntur animalia. Ar- 



bores 



