202 
BRAMBLES AND BAY LEAVES. 
itself over the soil. Its branches spread very wide, 
about eighteen or twenty feet from the stem, and then, 
sending down, the extremities thicken, and continually 
approach nearer to the earth; when they reach the 
ground they put forth roots, and each branch becomes a 
stem or trunk, growing to the size of the largest 
European oaks or elms. The branches having thus 
become trees, again shoot out branches bending down, 
and rooting as before, still extending themselves, often 
till the whole plant covers a very large space of ground. 
One of these grove-like trees, growing on an island in 
the Nerbudda river, about ten miles from Barouch, in 
the province of Guzerat, has three hundred and fifty 
principal stems, each as large as timber trees ; and these 
occupy a space two thousand feet in circumference, and 
the branches, whose hanging extremities have not yet 
reached the ground, extend much farther. This tree 
was once much larger than it is at present, for many of 
the stems have been carried off by the floods of the river, 
which have washed away part of the soil of the island. 
The natives affirm, that it is three thousand years old, 
and very possibly it may be; since, when any of the 
older central stems decay and leave a vacant space, this 
is in time re-occupied by fresh stems, produced by the 
branches growing and rooting, as in the outer side of 
the grove. A plant possessing such properties as these 
may be justly termed immortal. Sanctity is very pro¬ 
bably ascribed to this tree, because of its aptness to 
represent the emanation of living things from the parent, 
or creator, Brahma, who, having received the principle 
of life from the great supreme Brahme, produced, by a 
