xxxviii PREFACE. 



One of the species, under which it is said the 

 god Vishnu was born, and which is thence held 

 sacred to him, is named by Linnaeus, religiosa. 



The reader will remember Milton's celebrated 

 description of the Indian Fig : 



" The fig-tree, not that kind for fruit renowned, 

 But such as at this day, to Indians known, 

 In Malabar, or Deccan, spreads her arms, 

 Branching so broad and long, that in the ground 

 The bending twigs take root, and daughters grow 

 About the mother tree, a pillared shade 

 High over-arched, and echoing walks between." 



The trunk of the Vine tree, which, as Evelyn 

 observes, is " more like rope than timber, is, in a 

 favourable soil, found as big as a man's body. A 

 Vine furnished the doors of the cathedral at Ra- 

 venna, some of the planks of which measured 

 twelve feet in length, and fifteen inches in breadth. 



The Adansonia, or Ethiopian Sour Gourd, 

 though not remarkably high, is of amazing bulk. 

 The traveller from whom it takes its name mea- 

 sured several from sixty-five to seventy-eight feet 

 in circumference, and describes the branches as 

 from forty-five to fifty-five feet in length, and each 

 branch large enough for a monstrous tree. The 

 Konibax, or Silk Cotton tree, is one of the tallest 



