246 CALCUTTA BOTAXIC GARDENS. Chap. XXVII. 



and those Dendrobiums which bear axillary viviparous 

 buds never do. Some of the orchids appear to be 

 spread by birds amongst the trees ; but the different species 

 of Vanda are increasing so fast, that there seems no doubt 

 that this tribe of air-plants grows freely from seed 

 in a wild state, though we generally fail to rear them in 

 England. 



The great Banyan tree {Ficus Indicd) is still the pride 

 and ornament of the garden. Dr. Falconer has ascertained 

 satisfactorily that it is only seventy-five years old : annual 

 rings, size, &c, afford no evidence in such a case, but 

 people were alive a few years ago who remembered well 

 its site being occupied in 1782 by a Kujoor (Date-palm), 

 out of whose crown the Banyan sprouted, and beneath 

 which a Fakir sat. It is a remarkable fact that the 

 banyan hardly ever vegetates on the ground ; but its 

 figs are eaten by birds, and the seeds deposited in the 

 crowns of palms, where they grow, sending down roots that 

 embrace and eventually kill the palm, which decays away. 

 This tree is now eighty feet high, and throws an area 300 

 feet * in diameter into a dark, cool shade. The gigantic 

 limbs spread out about ten feet above the ground, and 

 from neglect during Dr. Wallich's absence, there were on 

 Dr. Falconer's arrival no more than eighty-nine descending 

 roots or props ; there are now several hundreds, and the 

 growth of this grand mass of vegetation is proportionably 

 stimulated and increased. The props are induced to sprout 

 by wet clay and moss tied to the branches, beneath which 



* Had this tree been growing in 1849 over the great palm-stove at Kew, only- 

 thirty feet of each end of that vast structure would have been uncovered : its 

 increase was proceeding so rapidly, that by this time it could probably cover the 

 whole. Larger banyans are common in Bengal ; but few are so symmetrical in 

 shape and height. As the tree gets old, it breaks up into separate masses, the 

 original trunk decaying, and the props becoming separate trunks of the different 

 portions. 



