Marvels of the Universe 1131 
thickens into a woody support 
for the long, heavy branch, 
and looks like an ordinary 
tree-trunk. 
It is aremarkable fact that 
few of these giant Banyans 
have grown from a seed ger- 
minated in the soil, as is usual 
with trees and most other 
plants. In its origin the 
Banyan is much like the 
mistletoe. A bird, having fed 
to repletion upon the Banyan’s 
fruit, flies to a palm or other 
high tree to rest and digest. 
As a preliminary the beak 
is cleaned and the plumage 
preened, and some seeds left 
on the palm; or they may 
pass uninjured through the 
digestive organs. Anyway, 
they get left, and in the rainy 
season germinate. The seed- 
ling cannot get sufficient nutri- 
ment in the crown of the palm, 
so it sends roots down the 
palm-trunk to the ground. 
These roots on all sides of the 
palm-trunk, as they grow, 
squeeze and strangle the poor 
palm, and the growth of the 
Banyan’s leafy boughs above 
it shuts out the light, so that 
the palm is. soon _ killed. 
bs 
The Banyan’s branches are Photo by] ‘ 5 - Wie DS. 
; THE EMBRACE OF THE FIG. 
A masonry image, after being partly wrecked by the roots of the Peepul, or Sacred 
stretched forth far and wide 
on every side, and as they Fig, is finally held together by the roots forming a close network around it. 
advance they send down the roots that will harden into props, enabling the branch to extend 
farther and farther from its base. In time the central starting-point of the Banyan will decay, 
but although it has no real trunk, the tree continues to flourish. 
The Banyan has an oval leaf with blunt tip, and so in respect of form it comes between the leaf 
of the India-rubber Plant and the Peepul, or Sacred Fig-tree of the Buddhists, which is another 
Indian tree, and has heart-shaped leaves, with a long, slender point. These leaves, which hang 
downwards, are always on the quiver, like those of our aspen, and, therefore, the Peepul is reputed 
to give grateful shade on the hottest days. 
The Peepul, although the most sacred tree in India, is not above strangling other trees, 
much as the Banyan does. It has similar habits, too, in often beginning life high in the air and 
sending its first roots from its elevated birthplace to seek the earth. On page 1132 is a photo- 
graph of a factory chimney that was disused. A bird had probably planted a Peepul seed between 
