ISLAND OF CEYLON. 



circumference of the fliadow at noon, eleven hundred and fix- 

 teen ; that of the feveral ftems, which were no more than fifty 

 or fixty, nine hundred and twenty-one. Hundreds of people 

 may find a comfortable retreat beneath its foliage. Such is the 

 account given by the veracious Mr. Mar/dm^ in page 131 of his 

 excellent hiftory of Sumatra. 



Pliny, lib. xih c. 5, gives the fuUeft defcription ; he was beft 

 qualified, for by the time he lived, the Romans got tolerably 

 well acquainted with the country. His account is elegant and 

 faithful : fpeaking of the trees of Indian he fays — « Ficus ibi 

 " exilia poraa habet. Ipfa fe femper ferens, vaftis diffunditur 

 " ramis : quorum imi adeo in terram curvantur, ut annuo 

 « fpatio infigantur, novaraque fibi propaginem faciant circa 

 *< parentem in orbem, quodam opere topiario. Intra fepem 

 *' earn, ieftivant paftores, opacam pariter, et munitam vallo 

 " arboris, decora fpecie fubter intuenti, proculve, fornicato am- 

 " bitu, Superiores ejus rami in excellum emicant, filvofa mul- 

 *' titudine, vallo matris corpore, ut Jx. p. plerceque orbe col- 

 " ligant, umbra vero bina fladia operiant. Foliorum b.titudo 

 " peltse effigiem Amazonicse habet: ea caufa frustum integensj 

 " crefcere prohibet. Rarufque eft, nee faboe magnitudinem 

 ** excedens; fed per folia folibus coiSlus proedulci f^pore, dig- 

 *' nus miraculo arboris." He concludes with faying, that it 

 was found chiefly about the Acef.nes, ttie modern 'Jcnaub, 

 which, falling into the famous Hydafpe^^ the Behut, proves its 

 growth in thofe days, at left as far north as Lat. 30° 30'. It did 

 not efcape the notice o{ Alexander the Great, who, after his 

 defeat of Fo/7<;j, admired it on his march to farther ilaughters. 



Vol. I. E e After 



•09 



