SACKED PLANTS OF INDIA. — BARBOUR. XXIX 



r 



and strange varieties of plants from the time he lands in Bombay 

 till the time he leaves India again, and he will see many which 

 are sacred and associated with Indian religious thought to a very 

 large degree, and hence I have endeavoured to try and write this 

 article in the hopes that it may be a help and pleasure to many 

 who may care to look upon them 'during their stay in the country, 

 which in many cases will only be for a few weeks or so. 



I often wonder how many think about the trees and plants 

 they see Avhen either on their railway journey or when visiting 

 the shrines 'and temples of ancient India, about which are usually 

 l^lanted trees or plants of a certain kind; and yet the lives of the 

 Hindus are intimtely woven both now and in the past with some 

 of these plants; and the plants themselves, could they but speak, 

 could tell wonderful tales of yore, when the Pantheon of Hindu 

 deities was perhaps more in evidence than it is to-day. Yet to-day 

 it is- not by any means obliterated. The old is still with us 

 in India and the native has~ remained unchanged, except j^erhaps 

 in the large cities for centuries. Civilization and Western 

 influences have, it is true, prevaded the large centres of the 

 community; but away in the jungle villages, the villager still 

 preserves his reverence for his ancestors' deities and his hopes in 

 the sacredness of his faith and the associations which surround 

 it, and amongst these the trees which form the subject of my 

 article. For these reasons I have thought that it may prove 

 interesting to jowr readers to tell them something about these 

 plants, what they are like, their uses either economically or 

 medicinally, and their associations, so far as can be found out at 

 the present day. The writer has practically seen all the trees or 

 plants to which he refers and so can speak from experience, both 

 as to their uses and also their interesting points to a great extent. 

 The object of this article being, however, nbt only to prove 

 interesting, but useful to all who may be thinking of visiting, 

 India and wishing to know the native names of the trees, the 

 names of the trees will be given, not only in the Latin form, but 

 in the vernacular and English in each case. 



Before proceeding to speak abtout these plants a word or two 

 must be said on one or two of the chief deities to which these 



