HISTORIC CELEBRITY OF THE BANYAN 107 



are of an astonishing size, as they are continually increasing, and, 

 contrary to most other animal and vegetable productions, seem 

 to be exempted from decay ; for every branch from the main 

 body throws out its own roots, at first in small tender fibres, 

 several yards from the ground, which continually grow thicker, 

 until, by a gradual descent, they reach its surface, where, strik- 

 ing in, they increase to a large trunk and become a parent-tree, 

 throwing out new branches from the top. These in time sus- 

 pend their roots, and, receiving nourishment from the earth, 

 swell into trunks and send forth other branches, thus con- 

 tinuing in a state of progression so long as the first parent of 

 them all supplies her sustenance. 



" The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow 

 About the mother-tree ; a pillar'd shade 

 High overarch' d, and echoing walks between. 

 There oft the Indian herdsman, shunning heat, 

 Shelters in cool, and tends his pasturing herds 

 At loopholes cut through thickest shade." 



These beautiful lines of Milton's are by no means overdrawn ; 

 as a banyan tree, with many trunks, forms the most beautiful 

 walks and cool recesses that can be imagined. The leaves 

 are large, soft, and of a lively green ; the fruit is a small fig 

 (when ripe of a bright scarlet), affording sustenance to mon- 

 keys, squirrels, peacocks, and birds of various kinds, which dwell 

 among the branches. 



The Hindoos are peculiarly fond of this tree ; they consider 

 its long duration, its outstretching arms and overshadowing 

 beneficence, as emblems of the Deity ; they plant it near their 

 dewals or temples ; and in those villages where there is no struc- 

 ture for public worship they place an image under a banyan, 

 and there perform a morning and evening sacrifice. 



Many of these beautiful trees have acquired an historic cele- 

 brity ; and the famous Cubbeer-burr, on the banks of the Ner- 

 buddah, thus called by the Hindoos in memory of a favourite 

 saint, is supposed to be the same as that described by Nearchus, 

 the admiral of Alexander the Great, as being able to shelter an 

 army under its far-spreading shade. " High floods have at 

 various times swept away a considerable part of this extraor- 

 dinary tree, but what still remains is near 2000 feet in circum- 

 ference, measured round the principal stems ; the overhanging 



