Come 



did examples, and there are many more. One is 

 a magnificent elm in the corner of the lawn, 

 whose symmetry and grace of structure I never 

 cease to admire when it is leafless, with the 

 massive strength of its stem and primary 

 branches and the delicate and feathery tracery 

 in the arrangement of its countless little twigs 

 spread out against the sky. Another beautiful 

 leafless tree in its vast expansion toward the 

 light is the peepul-tree of India, the Ficus religi- 

 osa. I am fortunately able to reproduce a photo- 

 graph of one of these beautiful trees taken some 

 years ago by a friend, whose enlargement of it 

 made a most attractive picture. It was under 

 one of these trees that nearly 2,500 years ago is 

 said to have sat, wrestling with the demons of 

 temptation, Gautama, the Buddha, the man whose 

 teaching and beneficent influence has swayed a 

 larger number of the human race than any one 

 either before or after him. Even to this day his 

 followers probably represent a greater propor- 

 tion of the population of the earth than any other 

 religion, and, including the followers of Brahman- 

 ism, whose religion owes some of its best phases 



15 



