PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



[Part I 



deptli of this grove, tlie original tree is incarcerated till, 

 literally strangled by the folds and weight of its resistless 

 companion, it dies and leaves the fig in undistiu-bed 

 possession of its place. It is not unusual in the forest to 







find a fig-tree which had been thus upborne till it became 

 a standard, now forming a hollow cylinder, the centre of 

 which was once filled by the sustaimng tree : but the 

 empty walls form a ckcular network of interlaced roots 

 and branches ; firmly agglutinated under pressure, and 

 admitting the light through interstices that look Hke 

 loopholes in a turret. 



Another species of the same genus, F. repens, is a 

 fitting representative of the Enghsh ivy, and is con- 

 stantly to be seen clambering over rocks, turning 



the following passage from Pliny re- 

 ferred to as the original of Milton's 

 description of this marvellous tree : — 



'^Ipsa se serens, vastis difFimditur 

 ramis : quorum imi adeo in terram 

 curvantur, ut annuo spatio iufigantur, 

 novamque sibi iwopcujincm faciunt 

 circa imrentem in orhem. Intra septem 

 eam astivant jmstores, opacam pariter 

 et munitam vallo arboris, decora 

 specie subter intuenti, proculve, _/or- 

 nicato arbore. Foliorum latitudo 

 2}ett(e cffigiem Amazonicce habet^" &c. 

 — Pliny, 1. xii. c. II. 



" The fig-tree — not thai kind for fruit renowned, 

 But such as at this day to Indians known, 

 In Malabar or Dekkan spreads her arms, 

 Branching so broad and long, that on tlie ground 

 The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow 

 About the mother tree : a pillar'd shade 

 High over arched and echoing walks between. 

 There oft the Indian herds-man, shunning heat. 

 Shelters ni cool and tends his pasturing flocks 

 At loop-holes cut through thickest shade. These 



leaves 

 They gathered ; broad as Amazonian targe : 

 And with what skill they had, together sewed 

 To gird their waist," &c. 



Par. Lost, ix. 1100. 



Pliny's description is borrowed, 

 witli some embellishments, from The- 

 orHiiASTUS de. Nat. Plant. 1. i. 7. iv. 4. 



