PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



[PART I. 



depth of this grove, the original tree is incarcerated till, 

 literally strangled by the folds and weight of its resistless 

 companion, it dies and leaves the fig in undisturbed 

 possession of its place. It is not unusual in the forest to 



MARRIAGE OF THE FIG-TREE AND THE PALM. 



find a fig-tree which had been. thus upborne till it became 

 a standard, now presenting a hollow cylinder, the centre of 

 which was once filled by the sustaining tree : but the 

 empty walls form a circular network of interlaced roots 

 and branches ; firmly agglutinated under pressure, and 

 admitting the light through interstices that look like 

 loopholes in a turret. 



Another species of the same genus, F. repens, is a 

 fitting representative of the English ivy, and is con- 

 stantly to be seen clambering over rocks, twining 



the following passage from Pliny re- 

 ferred to as the original of Milton's 

 description of this marvellous tree : 

 " Ipsa se serens, vastis diffunditur 

 ramis : quorum imi adeo in ten-am 

 curvantur, ut annuo spatio infigantur, 

 novamque sibi propaginem faciant 

 circa parentem in orbcm. Intra septem 

 earn astivant pastores, opacam pariter 

 et munitam vallo arboris, decora 

 specie subter intuenti, proculve,/w- 

 nicato arbore. Foliorum latitudo 

 pettce effigiem Amazonicte habet/' &c. 

 PLTNT, 1. xii. c. 11. 



" The fig-treenot that kind for fruit renowned, 

 But such as at this day to Indians known, 

 In Malabar or Dekkan spreads her arms, 

 Branching so broad and long, that on the ground 

 The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow 

 About the mother tree : a pillar'd shade 

 High oVer arched and echoing walks between. 

 There oft the Indian herdsman, shunning heat, 

 Shelters in cool and tends his pasturing flocks 

 At loop-holes cut through thickest shade. These 



leaves 



They gathered ; broad as Amazonian targe : 

 And with what skill they had, together sewed 

 To gird their waist," &c. 



Par. Lost, ix. 1100. 



Pliny's description is borrowed, 

 with some embellishments, fromTHE- 

 OPHRASTUS de. Nat. Plant. 1. i. 7. iv. 4. 



