Page:Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society - Volume 1.djvu/160

124, Dr. Noruven’s Account of the Banyan-Tree. came nearer to the truth. The roots, that shoot out from the branches, are no where so accurately described. They are thick * and twisted, he says, and distinguishable from the branches, from which they proceed, by a lighter colour. And he adds a particular circumstance, namely, that they are dipvaac, two-leaved, that is, furnished with two leaves, or stipule, as modern botanists would call them, probably at the spot where the roots issue from the branches. I have not seen this noticed in any modern description, either botanical or other. The size of the leaf is perhaps the only thing that is overrated: it equals, he says, a pelta, that is to say, a small Thracian, or, as it is alsc called, Amazonian t shield. Modern bota- nical accounts represent the leaf as of about a span, that is to say, nine or ten inches in length, whereas the peléa must have been more than double that measure. ‘The fruit is by modern botanists said to be of the size of a hazel-nut ; and Theophrastus compares it to an <¢:Gwe, which seems to have been a large pea, ora sort of kidney-bean. The river Acesines, near which, he says, the tree grows, is supposed to be the Ravi, one of the four or five streams that, flowing from the eastward, unite their waters with the Indus.

The account of Theophrastus is the foundation of Pliny’s description, which shall now follow. In speaking generally of India, this author re- marks that that country produces the largest animals; and then he goes on to say,t * There also grow, according to report, trees of such extraordinary

« five feet. Circumference of shadow at noon eleven hundred and sixteen feet. Circumference « of the several stems, in number fifty or sixty, nine hundred and twenty-one.” Now if some trees, as is said in one place, have measured in circumference of the branches, upwards of a thousand feet; or if, as is stated in the note, the circumference of the shadow at noon is eleven hundred and sixteen feet, it is not to be conceived how the diameter of the stem alone can be from three hundred and sixty-three te three hundred and seventy-five feet, or its circumference nine hundred and twenty-one. The whole computation, I confess, is not clear to my view; and perhaps some error in the numbers may have taken place. “« tree possesses the uncommon property of dropping roots or fibres from certain parts of its ‘« boughs, which, when they touch the earth, become new stems. These fibres look like ropes « attached to the branches.” + Pliny (Nat. Hist. XII. 11. p. 326. Vol. II. ed. Bip.) says: * Foliorum latitudo pelte effigiem « Amazonice habet.” Milton, in a passage to be quoted afterwards, calls this shield, Amazonian targe. t Pliny, Nat. Hist. VII. 2. Vol. II. p.9. ed. Bip. Maxima in India gignuntur animalia. Ar- bores
 * Mr. Marsden speaks of what Theophrastus calls the roots, in this manner, p. 163: “ The