530 



THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



The nearly related Pippul of India, or Bo-tree (Ficus religiosa), which differs 

 from the banyan by sending down no roots from its branches, is reverenced by the Bud- 

 dhists as the sacred plant, under whose shade Gotama, the founder of their religion, 

 reclined when he underwent his divine transfiguration. Its heart-shaped leaves, which 

 like those of the aspen, appear in the profoundest calm to be ever in motion, are 

 supposed to tremble in recollection of the mysterious scene of which they were the 

 witnesses. The sacred Pippul at Anarajapoora, the fallen capital of the ancient kings 

 of Ceylon, is probably the oldest historical tree in the world ; as it was planted 288 

 years before Christ, and hence is now 2,150 years old. The enormous age of the bao- 

 babs of Senegal, and of the wondrous sequoias of California, can only be conjectured ; 

 but the antiquity of the Bo-tree is matter of record, as its preservation has been an object 

 of solicitude to successive dynasties ; and the story of its fortunes has been preserved 

 in a series of continuous chronicles amongst the most authentic that have been handed 

 down by mankind. The olives in the garden of Gethsemane were full-grown when 

 the Saracens were expelled from Jerusalem, and the cypress of Somma in Lombardy 

 is said to have been a tree in the time of J ulius Cassar. Yet the Bo-tree is older than 

 the oldest of these by a century, and would almost seem to verify the prophecy pro- 

 nounced when it was planted, that it would "flourish and be green forever." The 

 degree of sanctity with which this extraordinary tree has been invested in the imagi- 

 nation of the Buddhists, may be compared to the feeling of veneration with which 

 Christians would regard the attested wood of the cross. At the present day the aspect 

 of the tree suggests the idea of extreme antiquity : the branches which have rambled 

 at their will far beyond the outline of its inclosure, the rude pillars of masonry that 

 have been carried out to support them, the retaining walls which shore up the parent 

 stem, the time-worn steps by which the place is approached, and the grotesque carvings 

 that decorate the stone-work and friezes, all impart the conviction that the tree which 

 they encompass has been watched over with abiding solicitude, and regarded with an 

 excess of veneration that could never attach to an object of dubious authenticity. 



Although far inferior to these wonders of the vegetable world in amplitude of growth, 

 yet the Teak tree, or Indian oak ( Tectona grandis), far surpasses them in value, as the 

 ship-worm in the water, and the termite on land, equally refrain from attacking its close- 

 grained strongly-scented wood ; and no timber equals it for ship-building purposes. 

 It grows wild over a great part of British India ; in the mountainous districts along 

 the Malabar coast, in Guzerat, the valley of the Nerbuddah, in Tenasserira and Pegu. 

 In Java also the teak forests, both those of natural growth and those that have been 

 planted by the Dutch, are carefully administered. This tree, which requires a century 

 to attain its full diameter of four feet, loses its leaves in the dry season, when the 

 grass and undergrowth of shrubbery is burnt, as the heat which is developed does the 

 trees no injury. The ashes afford an excellent manure, and the fire makes crevices and 

 rents in the soil, through which the fertilizing rain can afterwards more easily penetrate 

 to the roots. In Java the teak tree attains only a hight of eighty feet, inferior to its 

 loftier Hindostanic stature. 



Among the numerous timber-trees of Ceylon, the Satinwood ( Chloroxylon Swie- 

 tenia) is by far the first, in point of size and durability. All the forests around Bat- 

 ticaloa and Trincomalee, and as far north as Jaffna, are thickly set with this valuable 

 tree, under whose ample shade the traveler rides for days together. It grows to the 



