xxxviii 



PREFACE. 



One of the species^ under which it is said the 

 god Vishnu was born, and which is thence held 

 sacred to him, is named hy Linn^us, religiosa. 



The reader will remember Milton's celebrated 

 description of the Indian Fig : 



The fig-tree, not that kind for fruit renowned^, 

 But such as at this day, to Indians known^ 

 In Malabar or Deccan, spreads her arms. 

 Branching so broad and long, that in the ground 

 The bending twigs take root, and daughters grow 

 About the mother tree, a pillared shade 

 High over-arched; and echoing walks between." 



The trunk of the Vine tree, which, as Evelyn 

 observes, is " more like rope than timber, is, in a 

 favourable soil, found as big as a man's body. A 

 Vine furnished the doors of the cathedral at Ra- 

 venna, some of the planks of which measured 

 twelve feet in length, and fifteen inches in breadth. 



The Adansonia^ or Ethiopian Sour Gourd, 

 though not remiarkably high, is of amazing bulk. 

 The traveller from w^hom it takes its name mea- 

 sured several from sixty-five to seventy-eight feet 

 in circumference, and describes the branches as 

 from forty-five to fifty-five feet in length, and each 

 branch large enough for a monstrous tree. The 

 Bombax^ or Silk Cotton tree, is one of the tallest 



