IQ8 UNDER THE SHADOW OF THE BANYAN. 



in 1893; but he regrets to have to report that a great 

 deal of it has been destroyed, according to the natives 

 who live upott the spot, by floods from the Nerbudda; 

 but we fear also that parts of it have been cut, and 

 otherwise destroyed by man ; bush fires had also passed 

 through the underwood beneath it, during the previous 

 dry season. The surrounding districts are almost en- 

 tirely one vast cotton field ; which is one of the finest 

 cotton-producing districts in India. 



Another great tree of a similar kind is the " Banyan- 

 tree of Wairatgarh, " near Wai, a place famed in 

 ancient Hindu legends, and easily reached, through 

 enchanting rustic tropical scenery, from Poona. It is 

 said " to shade an area, three quarters of an acre in 

 extent," the space covered being in the shape of a 

 very symmetrical oval without anything growing 

 underneath to impede the view, save the stems from 

 the parent tree. Lady Falkland, * speaking of this 

 tree, says, 



" The shade was so complete, I could sit in the middle of 

 the day without any covering on my head. The tree was 

 of such a size that separate picnic parties might take place 

 under it, and not interfere with each other. There were 

 countless avenues, or rather aisles, like those of a church, 

 the pale grey stems being the columns, which as the sun fell 

 on them, glistened, in parts, like silver; and here and there 

 were little recesses, like chapels, where the roots from the 

 boughs formed themselves into delicate clustering pillars, up 

 and down which little squirrels were chasing each other, while 

 large monkeys were jumping from bough to bough." f 



The leaves of the banyan, we may here remark, 



* Voyages .and Travels, by Lady Falkland, p. 173. 

 f See Murray's Handbook of the Bombay Residency, 2nd edit., 1881. 

 p. 196. 



