332 
Vegetables of Ceylon. 
rays ; it folds up into plaits like a fan, which in figure it 
nearly resembles. In size and thickness it completely surpasses 
all other leaves. The breadth of the diameter is from three 
to four feet, and the length and thickness is in proportion : 
it is large enough to cover ten men from the inclemency of 
the weather. It is made into umbrellas of all sizes, and serves 
equally to protect the natives against the intolerable rays of the 
sun, and the rains whicli at particular seasons deluge their countiy: 
As it is of such an impenetrable texture as to defy either the 
sun or the monsoon, it affords a shelter even more secure than 
their huts. During the violent rains, it is not unusual to see 
the natives prop up one end of a talipot leaf with a stick two 
or three feet long, and then creep under it for protection. I 
have already described the manner in which the natives make 
use of this leaf for waiting. 
The banyan tree, or, as it is frequently called, the Indian 
fg~tree, is a native of Ceylon. It bears no fruit nor blossom, 
but grows to an immense size, and has some striking peculiari- 
ties in its appearance. It first rises to a great height in the air, 
and then drops its branches downwards. A vast number of 
roots are then observed to shoot forth from the lower extre- 
mities of the branches, where they continue suspended like 
icicles, till they at last fasten themselves in the earth. From 
these roots new shoots spring up, which in their turn become 
trees, and strike their branches into the ground. A wdiole 
grove is thus formed from one original stock ; and the arches 
formed by the branches and the numerous interwoven shoots, come 
in time to have actually the appearance of grottos and excava- 
tions. The circumference of the grove arising from one stock 
has frequently been known to extend to several hundred feet. 
