MTSOEB AND OOOBG. 271 



539 Ficus Bengalensis, Linn. Kan. Ala, Alada mara. 



Fig.-King Fie. PI. 13. Wight Ic. t 1989. 



References-— Brand. Foi\ JBL 412; Diet, of 

 Econ. Prod, of Ind. 

 The proper banyan tree of India, A large umbra- 

 geous species attaining to 80 andj in exceptional 

 cases, 100 feet. Leaves deciduous, petiolate, alter- 

 nate, coriacfeous, ovate-rotund to elliptic, apex blunt ; 

 average blade 5x8 in. Aerial roots abundant or 

 otherwise according to age and situation. Fruit in 

 sessile pairs, orange-red to reddish, the size of a 

 gooseberry. The banyan is so universally known 

 that it calls for no special description here, and 

 being venerated by the Hindus, it is extensively 

 planted in most parts of India. Dr. King remarks, 

 however, that it is " wild only in the Sub-Himalayan 

 forests and on the lower slopes of the hill ranges of 

 Southern India. " It is asserted by the same author- 

 ity that the tendency to send down aerial roots 

 from the branches reaches its highest development 

 in the banyan. At Bangalore, the tree remains bare 

 of leaf for 20 days in March or beginning of April. 

 The banyan, like many species of the genus Ficus, 

 often commences Hf e as an epiphyte on the body of 

 some other tree, and the curious condition of seeing 

 two different trees growing, as it were, from a common 

 root is mostly due to this investment. The Hindus 

 call it natural marriage and will rarely separate' 

 such a union, although the fig prevails eventually 

 and strangles the tree from which it derived its 

 early support. Seeds masticated by crows and 

 other birds are plentifully dropped into the clefts of 

 various trees ; in the course of time some of these 

 germinate and hence the result here depicted. 



Gigantic and altogether very remarkable speci- 

 mens of the banyan tree exist at Mhasve, Satara 

 Zillah, in the Bombay Presidency, and in the Eoyal 

 Botanical Gardens, Calcutta. Correct measurements 



