Che Banpati tree* 



THE Banyan Tree is the Fiens Indica, the 

 Bar-Ka-Jhar of Southern India, the Arbor 

 de Rais of the Portuguese. It throws down 

 aerial roots, which support the large branches, 

 and these again throw down other roots, till as 

 Milton wrote (Paradise Lost IX.) the tree becomes : 



Such at this day, to Indians known, 

 In Malabar or Deccan, spreads her arms, 

 Branching so broad and long, that in the ground, 

 The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow 

 About the mother-tree, a pillar'd shade, 

 High over-arch'd and echoing walks between : 

 There oft the Indian herdsman, shunning heat, 

 Shelters in cool, and tends his pasturing herds 

 At loop holes cut through thickest shade. 



Several of these trees have attracted attention 

 from their dimensions. Four miles distant from 

 Fort Saint David was one under the shade of which 

 Mr. Ives quotes Mr. Didge as computing that 

 ten thousand men might stand without incom- 

 moding themselves. Dr. Frayer saw one of those 



