Ficus.] LXVII. URTICACE.E. 413 



Urostlgma bengalense, Gasp. ; Wight Ic. t. 1989. Banyan. Sans. Vata. 

 Vern. Bo?', bar, bera, bargat, Hind. ; War, Bombay. 



A large tree with spreading branches, sending down numerous slender 

 roots, which descend to the ground and afterwards become trunks. Leaves 

 alternate, approximate near the ends of branches, ovate, entire, obtuse, 

 base cordate or rounded, 3-5-nerved, the midrib with 4-6 pair of main 

 lateral nerves, joined by fine transverse reticulate and distinct intramar- 

 ginal veins, coriaceous, smooth above, soft-tomentose pubescent or gla- 

 brate beneath, blade 4-8, petiole 1-2 in. long, a broad smooth gland at the 

 top of the petiole on the under side ; stipules sheathing, leaving annular 

 scars on branchlets. Receptacles sessile, axillary, each receptacle supported 

 by 2-4, more or less connate, broad obtuse bracts. Male and female fl. 

 in the same receptacle mixed with long linear bracteoles ; perianth 3-4- 

 parted, male fl. monandrous. Fruit globose, pubescent, red when ripe, 

 -J in. diam. 



Commonly planted by Hindoos throughout India, as far north as Peshawar, 

 in the outer Himalaya as high as 4000 ft. "Wild in the forest tracts of the 

 sub-Himalayan tract, Oudh, Bengal, and Central India, irregularly distributed, 

 common in places, and wanting in others. In North India the leaves are renewed 

 in March and April ; the fruit ripens April, May, and remains long on the 

 tree ; the young foliage has a brownish colour. The Banyan sends down aerial 

 roots from the branches to a greater extent than any other Ficus ; they root in 

 the ground and grow into trunks, which serve as a support for the horizontal 

 branches, and as feeders, thus gradually increasing the diameter of the crown. 

 Many specimens are known in Bengal with the crown 200-300 ft. in diameter 

 and larger. Grows 70-100 ft. high, the main stem generally of moderate girth. 

 In North-West India the rootdrops are much less numerous and strong than in 

 the moister and warmer climate of Bengal and the peninsula, but the trunk 

 attains a large size, 25 or 30 ft. girth being not uncommon, and trees exist even 

 in the dry climate of the Panjab, with numerous rootdrops covering considerable 

 areas. The bark is 1 in. thick, grey, but darker coloured than that of the Peepul, 

 smooth and even, with circular shallow furrows, inner bark pale-red, fibrous. 

 The bark of old stems often exfoliates in flat roundish scales. Wood open- 

 grained, not durable, whitish, with concentric wavy bands of lighter-coloured tis- 

 sue. Medullary rays numerous, distinctly marked. Pores large, few, often in 

 pairs ; the cub. ft. weighs 30-36 lb., and Skinner gives the value of P. at 600. 

 Hindoos do not generally fell the tree, but the wood is occasionally used for 

 boxes, door-panels, and is said to be valued for well -rings. The rootdrops 

 are tough and elastic, and are used for tent-poles, poles for carrying loads, 

 also for cart-yokes. A coarse brown cordage is made of them, which the Sikhs 

 used largely for slow-matches for their matchlocks. Birdlime is prepared 

 from the acrid milky juice ; when dried it has the form of dark-brown lumps. 

 Brahmins use the leaves as plates, and leaves and twigs are a favourite fodder 

 of cattle and elephants. Lakh is collected from the tree in some parts of the 

 eastern and central Panjab and in Ceylon, not in Sindh. The fruit is sweetish, 

 and is eaten during times of scarcity ; it is greedily devoured by birds. The 

 leaves are applied to bruises, and the bark is used in native pharmacy. Like 

 other sp. of Ficus, the Banyan often grows from seeds left by birds in the fork 

 of another tree, whence it sends down aerial roots, which gradually form a net- 

 work of thick woody roots or stems, enclosing the trunk of the parent tree, 

 which is buried in the mass of the Ficus, and at last perishes. Trees killed in 



