A LEAFY ASYLUM. 405 



And many a long depending shoot 



Seeking to strike its root, 



Straight, like a plummet, grew towards the ground. 

 Some on the lower boughs, which crossed their way. 

 Fixing their bearded fibres, round and round, 

 With many a ring and wild contortion wound; 

 Some to the passing wind, at times with sway 



Of gentle motion swung ; 



Others of younger growth, unmoved, were hung 

 Like stone-drops from the cavern's fretted height. 



Beneath was smooth and fair to sight, 

 Nor weeds nor briars deformed the natural floor ; 

 And through the leafy cope which bowered it o'er, 

 Came gleams of chequered light." 



The Banyan surpasses in diameter the finest oaks of Europe, and 

 throws off numerous branches, of which several redescend towards 

 the earth, force their way into it, take root therein, and in their turn 

 develop into new trunks, whence spring other boughs that go through 

 the same process of fructification ; so that a single stem spreads in 

 time into a kind of forest, and the canopy formed by the outgrowth of a 

 solitary tree will frequently overshadow an area of 1700 square yards. 



The evergreen foliage of this beautiful tree forms an immense vault, 

 which has justly been compared to the domed roof of a stately edifice 

 supported by a host of columns. Here a myriad birds raise their 

 songs of joy ; underneath, the weary pilgrim finds a delightful asylum ; 

 from branch to branch leap the mocking ape and the nimble squirrel. 

 The Hindus hold their " Pagod tree " in great veneration. It is to 

 them one of the emblems of their god Siva, and in its dense deep 

 shade they assemble to celebrate their sacrificial rites, whether in 

 honour of this potent deity, or whether in honour of Ganesha, a 

 niral divinity, analogous in his attributes to the Pan of the Greeks 

 and Latins. 



Several other tropical trees possess, like the banyan, the property 

 of producing adventitious roots which spring from the trunk or 

 branches which implant themselves in the soil ; but not one enjoys 

 an equal power of reproduction and multiplication. 



One of the greatest trees of southern Asia, and possibly one of 



