142 BOTANV OF INDIA. 



The wood of the tree is useful, and equally so the gum 

 that exudes from it. 



The jaca* is a larger tree than the preceding, the trunk 

 being, according to Roxburgh, from eight to twelve feet in 

 circumference. The fruit is oblong and very large, sixty or 

 seventy pounds in weight, and containing several hundred 

 seeds three or four times as large as almonds. As an article 

 of diet it is not much esteemed, though the natives of Ceylon 

 eat it freely. The milk-like juice which the plant gives out 

 •when wounded, in common with many others of its tribe, is 

 so tenncious as to form good birdlime. The whole aspect 

 of the jaca is extraordinary when seen for the first time, 

 hearing, as it does, its " ponderous fruit of the weight of 

 sixty or seventy pounds, on the trunk and arms, — huge de- 

 formities for the lap of riora."t 



To the present family belong also the fig (Ficus), and the 

 mulberry (Morus) ; of the former of which we have in Dr. 

 Wallich's catalogue 105 species, of the latter eight species. 

 Of the Indian figs very few indeed, we believe, are edible. 

 Ficiis glomerata, we are however told by Roxburgh, pro- 

 duces fruit in clusters nearly as large as the common fig, 

 ■which is eaten by the natives, but not found palatable by 

 Europeans. The most interesting species of this genus is 

 unquestionably the banian-tree {Ftciis rcligiosa), regarded 

 -with religious veneration by the Hindoos, because they 

 believe their god Vishnu to have been born under it, and 

 because they consider its long duration, and outstretching 

 arms, and overshadowing beneficence as emblems of the 

 deity. Temples are often, from the same cause, erected 

 near it, and images often planted under its shade. The 

 most peculiar and striking feature of this remarkable tree is 

 the property which it possesses of throwing out supports 

 from the horizontal branches, which take root as soon as 

 they reach the ground, enlarge into trunks, and, extending 

 branches in their turn, soon cover a prodigious extent of 

 ground. No tree can accommodate itself better to the situa- 

 tion where it happens to vegetate. According to Forbes, it 

 frequently shoots from old walls and runs along them. 

 *' On the inside of a large brick wall one of these trees lined 



* Botanical Magazine, tab. 2833 and 2S34. 



t Uuilding's AccouDt of the Botanic Garden in the Island of St Vmcent. 



