THE BANYAN TREE. 61 



of progression so long as the first parent of them all supplies 

 her sustenance. No wonder that the pious Hindoos are par- 

 ticularly fond of this glorious tree, and that they consider its 

 long duration, its outstretching arms, and overshadowing benefi- 

 cence as emblems of the Deity, of whose wisdom and power it is 

 one of the most striking monuments. 



Admirable as holdfasts or anchors, whose iron grasp enables 

 the giants of the forest to brave the storm, the roots are equally 

 remarkable as the organs which extract the nutritious particles 

 from the soil and provide the plant with its necessary food. 

 All our forest trees germinate with a chief or vertical root ; but 

 as lateral branches frequently acquire a more robust growth 

 than the central stem, thus also we find that in many cases the 

 lateral or side-roots become stronger and more extended than 

 the parent root from which they sprung. In older trees a 

 difference between the original or vertical root and its lateral 

 embranchments can thus with difficulty be traced ; and even in the 

 oak, the beech, and the fir, which during the first year of their 

 life possess a preponderating central root, this is not seldom at 

 a later period far outgrown by its embranchments, each of 

 which, under favourable circumstances, seems able to become the 

 chief food-provider of the plant : a most wise and admirable 

 provision, for as the trees are immovably bound to the soil, 

 and only able to find nourishment as far as their roots can 

 reach, they could riot possibly have attained a great age or 

 a colossal size, had they not been endowed with the faculty of 

 extending their subterranean organs of nutrition in all direc- 

 tions, of conquering as it were new tributary regions, correspond- 

 ing with the increase of their wants. It is only through the deli- 

 cate radical filaments which proceed from the larger root-fibres 

 that plants derive their nourishment from the earth ; for experi- 

 ment has proved that a herb will perish in the midst of water 

 if the ends of its roots are raised above the surface. Each 

 of these fibrils is enveloped in a sheath of cellular substances, 

 and terminates with a peculiarly succulent' tissue, forming what 

 is termed the spongiole, where the process of absorption 

 goes on with the greatest activity. Frequently the delicate 

 fibrils are also covered with extremely fine hygroscopic hairs, 

 destined to augment the absorbing surface. Thus endowed 

 with the property of appropriating the nutritious juices of the 



