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LVI. On the Treatment of the Banyan Tree (Ficus Indica) 

 in the Conservatory. In a Letter to the Secretary. By 

 Peter Rainier, Esq. Captain R. N. F. H. S. 



Read January 20th, 1824. 



Dear Sir, 



J have in my conservatory a Banyan Tree, which has been 

 in my possession fourteen years ; but I did not succeed in 

 getting the roots, which it annually sends forth from its 

 branches, to form stems, and live through the winter, till 

 1820 ; previous to that year they mildewed in consequence 

 of being exposed to the steam of the house. 



I have now been more successful under the following 

 treatment : — in the summer of 1 820, I procured some rocket 

 cases, which were filled with equal parts of white sand and 

 sifted loam, well mixed together, and then suspended from 

 the tree ; into these the fibres were inserted which had shot 

 from the different branches to the length of four or five 

 inches ; water was occasionally applied to them till the end 

 of October, from which time till the ensuing spring they re- 

 mained dry. The bottoms of the cases were opened in the 

 May following, and the roots soon projected, the cases were 

 then taken off, with a sharp knife, and the operation again 

 repeated on the extremities of the same roots, till they were 

 long enough to touch the earth in which the tree is growing. 

 Soon after the roots which had been enclosed were exposed 

 to the atmospheric air, they were covered with bark, and 



