189 
645, CELTIS: cL. Pentandria Digynia. «| 
A name saidto have been formerly given to a species of lotus. (Zizyphus?) 
Gaert. ¢t.77. Lam. t. 844. 
1354, C. Ortentatts. Rox. Flora, Ind. 2. p. 65. Sprengel’s syst. 1. p. 932, 
Mallam taddali. Rheed. Mal. 4.¢.40. Hamilt. in Linn, Trans. 17, p. 207. 
Pluk. Alm. ¢. 221. fi 4. 
Indian Netile tree.—A small tree, with obliquely heart-shaped, bifarious, 
serrated leaves; whitish beneath. Flowers axillary; very minute; appear in 
February and March.---Common along the foot of the Ghauts; Kenuery 
forests, Salsette &c. 
The fibres of the bark are very tough, and probably good cordage might 
be manufactured from them. 
ORDER 127. ARTOCARPE. 
Tue Breap-Fruit Tries. Lind. nat. syst. p. 95. 
646. FICUS. L. Polygamia Monoecia, ; 
Derivation of the word unknown--Greek, Syke, which is said to come from 
the Hebrew, to overspread or cover; in allusion to the grateful shade Fig 
trees afford, (See Ist Kings. 4. 25. Micah. 4.4 and John. 1, 49. 51.) Syke, 
is the root of the English word sycophant, a tattler,---busy-body; an infor- 
mer against Fig stealers; the ancient Athenian law, forbidding the exporta- 
tion of figs from Attica. Gaert. 2. ¢,91 and 179. Tourn. ¢t. 420. Lam, t. sé} 
1355. F. Inpica. Rox. Flora. 3. p. 539. F. Bengalensis. Willd. Spec. 4. 
p. 1135: Peralu. Rheed. Mal. 1. ¢. 28. Vavinga latifolia. Rumph. Amb. 3. t. 
84. Vuta. Asiat, Res. 4. p 310. Pluk. Phyt.t. 178. f. 1. 
Wur.---The Banyan, or Indian Fig-tree; common all over India; and in 
some places ofan immense size. One growivg on an Island in the Ner- 
budda above Broach, has long been celebrated.---Lieut. Col. Sykes mentions 
one at the village of Mhow in the Poona Collectorate, with 68 stems des- 
cending from the branches, and capable of affording shade, with a vertical 
sun, to 20,000 men. (Madrax Journal of Scieuce No. 22.) Kabir Bhur, near 
Broach, is now the gloomy recess of superstitions, and the haunt of its hate- 
ful birds, the owls and flying foxes. N. 
Can this be the ‘‘Bearded Fig” of the West Indies, from which Barbadoes 
is said to take its name? 
‘But chief thatland, to which the bearded fig, 
Prince of the forest, gave Barbadoes name.” 
Grainger, 
The name is given perhaps in allusion to the beard-like fibres which the 
branches send forth. 
There can be little doubt it is the tree Milton had in view for clothing 
our first Parents, though the leaves are not broad as ‘** Amazonian targe;” but 
allowance must be made for his source of information—Pliny; who says it 
has “‘folium maximum umbrosissimum,” (Lib, 16. Cap. 26.) and adds in prose 
in another Book, what Milton has so elegantly turned into poetry. 
“‘ ——There soon they chose 
The fig-tree, not that kind for fruit renown’d; 
But such as at this day to Indians known 
In Malabar or Deccan, spreads her arms 
Branching so broad and long, thatin the ground 
The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow 
About the mother tree, a pillared shade 
High over-arched, and echoing walks between; 
There oft the Indian herds-man shunning heat, 
Shelters in cool, and tends his pasturing herds 
At loopholes cut thro’ thickest shade.” 
Paradise Lost. Book 9, 
