183 
THE BANYAN TREE. 
FICUS INDICA. 
“ The fig-tree (not that kind for fruit renown’d, 
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 bended twigs take root, and daughters grow 
About the mother tree, a pillar’d shade 
High overarch’d, and echoing walks between.” 
So many and so definite are the descriptions, both in 
prose and verse, of the Banyan, that the mind feels 
almost familiar with it, though perhaps no tree is more 
strongly impressed with foreign lineaments. In our 
stoves, “ foreigners from many lands,” 
“ Unconscious of a less propitious clime,” 
are seen mingling in social union; not only flowers and 
shrubs, but trees of considerable magnitude. Such, 
however, is the astonishing bulk of this leafy giant, 
that the broad bosom of earth, and the overarching 
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