198 CONSERVATIVE ORGANS. [LECT. V. 



tion, which consists in bending down a branch, or 

 the s.tem of the plant, so that the knee or bent 

 portion of it can be preserved, by means of pegs, 

 under the surface of the soil. The part so treated 

 is nourished by the parent plant, until roots are 

 sent off from the part under the ground, when it 

 is cut away, and thus becomes an independent 

 plant. Some plants naturally propagate, or rather 

 extend themselves in a similar manner. Thus, 

 from the branches of the Banyan or Indian Fig- 

 tree (Ficus indica), fibres are thrown out, which 

 hang suspended like icicles, and grow thicker 

 as they reach the surface of the ground, into 

 which they strike root and become trunks, the 

 branches of which root again in the same manner : 

 and this progression of increase is continued until 

 the ground is covered to a prodigious extent with 

 an umbrageous labyrinth or grove, formed from 

 one original trunk, impenetrable to the sunbeams *. 

 One of these trees, called Cubber Burr, situated 

 on an island in the river Nerbedda, exceeded 

 2000 feet in the circumference of its shade ; and 

 in 1787, had 350 trunks. Religious festivals were 

 held under its luxuriant canopy, which was ca- 

 pable of affording shelter from the solar heat to 



* Pagodas are generally built in the neighbourhood of these 

 trees; and under their friendly shade the Brahmins and de- 

 votees perform their religious rites. 



