1130 Marvels of the Universe 
are familiar on our tables, and the India-rubber Plant so frequently used as a room decoration in 
towns on account of the hard-wearing qualities of its varnished, leathery leaves, which are able to 
survive dust and the dry atmosphere of our living-rooms. The Fig has been successfully naturalized 
in our gardens for nearly four centuries, and in the South of England even ripens its fruit out of 
doors. Hundreds of tons of the dried fruit are imported into this country every year. | Few persons 
who know the foliage of the Fig-tree would at sight associate it with the India-rubber Plant, the 
characters of the leaves being so widely different in shape and texture. The Fig is worthy of note, 
because what we eat as fruit is really a swollen and hollowed flower-stalk. The flowers were all 
inside the hollow and the real fruits are there later,so small as to be unrecognized. The desirable 
portion as a food is the swollen stalk. 
In tropical countries there are Figs that become enormous trees, and chief of these is the Banyan 
of India, old specimens of which will cover an area of two thousand square feet, with hundreds of 
“ trunks ’’—really natural supporting props to its extensive branches. The old idea—embalmed 
in Milton’s famous lines—was that “ the bending twigs take root” to nourish the ever-extending 
circumference of its aerial growth ; but this is not strictly accurate. What really happens is that 
the horizontal branches send down thin, succulent roots towards the earth, and where there are no 
cattle to browse these off, as they like to do, the tips enter the soil and ramify as ordinary roots, 
sucking up supplies of raw material for the foliage to elaborate above. The above-ground portion 
“Photo bu) 
[F. Skeen & Co. 
TRIMEN’S BANYAN. 
This tree is very similar to the common Banyan, and has the same habit of sending down roots from the _ horizontal 
branches. The position of the main trunk may be seen, but it is almost hidden by roots which have become part of it. All the 
other upright portions are roots in various stages of enlargement. 
