CIIAP. III.] BAXYAX TKK I-:. 97 



through heaps of stones, or ascending some tall tree to the 

 height of thirty or forty feet, while the thickness of its 

 own stem does not exceed a quarter of an inch. 



The facility with which the seeds of the fig-tree take 

 root where there is a sufficiency of moisture to permit of 

 germination, has rendered them formidable assailants of 

 the ancient monuments throughout Ceylon. The vast 

 mounds of brickwork which constitute the remains of the 

 Dagobas at Aarajapoora, Pollanarrua, and elsewhere are 

 covered densely with trees, amongst which the figs are 

 always conspicuous. One, which has fixed itself on the 

 walls of a ruined edifice at the latter city, forms one of 

 the most remarkable objects of the place its roots 

 streaming downwards over the walls as if their wood had 

 once been fluid, follow every sinuosity of the building and 

 terraces till they reach the earth. 



A FIG-TREE ON THE ROIN8 OF POLLANARRUA. 



To this genus belongs the Sacred Bo-tree of the Bud- 

 dhists, Ficus religiosa, which is planted close to every 

 temple, and attracts almost as much veneration as the 



VOL. I. H 



