THE SUB-TROPICAL ZONE. 91 



at length often become as portly as the parent 

 stem. Milton beautifully describes it 



" The lig tree, not that kind for fruit renowned, 

 But such as at this day, to Indians known, 

 In Malabar or Deccan spreads her arms, 

 Branching so broad and long, that in the ground 

 The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow 

 About the mother tree, a pillar'd shade, 

 High over-arch'd, and echoing walks between: 

 There oft the Indian herdsman, shunning heat, 

 Shelters in cool, and tends his pasturing herds 

 At loop holes cut through thickest shade." 



There is a tree of it on the banks of the 

 Nerbudda, in the province of Guzerat, with 

 350 main stems, occupying' an area of 2,000 

 feet, independently of the branches, which ex- 

 tend much further. The number of smaller 

 stems amounted to more than 3,000, and are 

 continually casting out new branches and hang- 

 ing roots. It is estimated that 7,000 persons 

 might find ample room beneath its shade 



A sylvan temple, arch'd aloof 



With airy aisles and living colonnades 



Where nations might have worshipp'd God in peace. 



Mr. Reinwardt saw in the Island of Simao 

 a large wood of Ficus Benjamina, which had 

 sprung from one stem. Milton supposes the 

 leaves of the banyan to have been the fig leaves 

 with which our first parents clothed themselves 

 after the fall. The tenacity of life in some 

 species of fig is very remarkable. A specimen 

 of Ficus Australia lived, and grew suspended in 

 the air without earth, in one of the hot-houses 

 in the Botanic Garden at Edinburgh, for eight 

 months, without apparently experiencing any 

 inconvenience. The whole tribe of fig trees, 



