176 THE HUMAN SIDE OF TREES 



This creature attains its noteworthy size in a lat- 

 eral instead of a perpendicular direction. As the 

 main branches grow, they throw down roots or 

 props which, fastening themselves in the ground, 

 send out branches of their own. This continues in- 

 definitely, until a great vegetable structure of many 

 trunks and interlaced branches results. The trunks 

 are massed close together near the original stem, 

 but are wider apart, like great wooden columns, in 

 the outer regions. The effect is that of a great 

 grove of connected trees a real natural temple. 



On the banks of the River Nerbudda is a banyan 

 which is said to be capable of sheltering 7,000 men. 

 History claims it to be the same tree described by 

 Nearchus, the admiral of Alexander the Great. 

 High floods have at various times swept away a 

 considerable part of this extraordinary tree, but 

 what still remains is nearly 2,000 feet in circumfer- 

 ence, measured round the principal stems ; the over- 

 hanging branches not yet struck down cover a much 

 larger space, and under it grow a number of cus- 

 tard-apple and other fruit trees. The large trunks 

 of this single colossus amount to a greater number 

 than the days of the year, and the smaller ones ex- 

 ceed 3,000, each constantly sending forth branches 

 and hanging roots to form other trunks and become 

 the parents of a future progeny. And so we find 



