106 



TROPICAL PLANTS 



impenetrable shade. Its leaves are about four inches long and 

 as many broad, and its figs have an excellent flavour. In Egypt 

 it is almost the only grove-forming tree ; and most of the 

 mummy coffins are made of its incorruptible wood. 



Sycamore. 



No baobab rears its monstrous trunk on the banks of the 

 Ganges; no dragon-tree of patriarchal age here reminds the 

 wanderer of centuries long past ; but the beautiful and stately 



s.^^ 



lyan. 



Banyan (Ficus indica) gives him but little reason to 



their absence. Each tree is in itself a grove, and some of them 



regret 



