Dr. Noehden's Account of the Banyan-Tree. 125 



" height, that you cannot shoot an arrow over them. It is owing to the 

 " richness of the soil, the temperature of the climate, and the abundance 

 " of water, that (if we may believe it) there is a species of fig-tree, under 

 " whose branches whole troops of horsemen may be concealed." The 

 very high tree, to which Pliny first alludes, may perhaps have been the 

 great Fan-Palm (^Con/p/ia umh-aculifera') : but he has no name for it. The 

 report of it, as of most of the productions of India, came from the Mace- 

 donians that composed the expedition of Alexander the Great; and these, 

 though they gave an account of many trees, left most of them without 

 names, as Pliny in another * place has observed : which circumstance ren- 

 dered them indistinct and doubtful objects. The Banyan-tree was exempt 

 from this defect, having, as before noticed, been called Indian Fig-tree, 

 from the first moment that the Macedonians saw it. From its being desig- 

 nated as a Fig-tree, in the passage of Pliny, above recited, we know that it 

 is the Banyan, of which the author is speaking. 



This tree was among the objects, which were brought to the knowledge 

 of the western world, by the expedition of Alexander. As such it is men- 

 tioned by Pliny,t who describes it in the following manner :% " It has very 

 " small fruit. Continually propagating itself, it overspreads a vast space 

 " with its branches, the lowest of which are in such a manner bent towards 

 " the ground, that every year a portion of them strike into it, and produce 

 " a new offspring around the parent-tree, forming themselves into a circle, 

 " as if it were done by the hand of art. Within tliis enclosure the shep- 



bores quidem tanta proceritatis traduntur. ut sagittis superjaci nequeant. Hcecjacii ubertas soli, 

 tanperies coeli, aquarum abundantia (si libeat credere) ut sub unajicu turmce condantur equiium, 



* Nat. Hist. XII. 13. Vol. II. p. 327. ed. Bip. Genera arborum Macedones narravere, mnjore 

 ex parte sine nominibus. 



f Nat. Hist. XII. 10. p. 326. Nunc eas (arbores) exponanu quas mirata est Alexandri Magni 

 victoria, orbe eo patefacto. 



\ Nat. Hist. XII. 11. p. 326. Ficus ihi exilia poma habet. Ipsa se semper serens, vastis diff'un- 

 ditur ramis ; quorum imi adeo in terrain curvantur, ut annuo spatio injigantur, novamque sibi 

 propaginem faciant circa parentem in orbem, quodam opere topiario. Intra sepem earn ccstivant 

 pastores, opacam pariter et munitam vallo arboris, decord specie subter intuenti, proculve, Jbmicato 

 ambitu. Superiores ejusdem rami in excelsum emicant, silvosd multitudine, vasto matris corpore, tit 

 LX. passus picrique orbe colligant, umbra vero Una stadia operiant. Foliorum latitudo peltee effi- 

 giem Amazonicce habet: hac causil , Jructum integens, crescere prohibct. Rarusque est, nee JabiB 

 magniludinem exccdens : sed per folia solibus coctus, pradulci sapore, dignus miraculo arboris, 

 Cignitur circa Acesitiem maxime amnem. 



