Page:Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society - Volume 1.djvu/161

Dr. Noruven’s Account of the Banyan-Tree. 125 "height, that you cannot shoot an arrow over them. It is owing to the “ of water, that (if we may believe it) there is a species of fig-tree, under “ whose branches whole troops of horsemen may be concealed.” The very high tree, to which Pliny first alludes, may perhaps have been the great Fan-Palm (Corypha umbraculifera): but he has no name for it. The report of it, as of most of the productions of India, came from the Mace- donians that composed the expedition of Alexander the Great; and these, though they gave an account of many trees, left most of them without names, as Pliny in another * place has observed: which circumstance ren- dered them indistinct and doubtful objects. The Banyan-tree was exempt from this defect, having, as before noticed, been called Zndian Fig-tree, from the first moment that the Macedonians saw it. From its being desig- nated as a Fig-tree, in the passage of Pliny, above recited, we know that it is the Banyan, of which the author is speaking.
 * richness of the soil, the temperature of the climate, and the abundance

This tree was among the objects, which were brought to the knowledge of the western world, by the expedition of Alexander. As such it is men- tioned by Pliny,t who describes it in the following manner :t “ It has very the ground, that every year a portion of them strike into it, and produce “« a new offspring around the parent-tree, forming themselves into a circle, “as if it were done by the hand of art. Within this enclosure the shep- bores quidem tante proceritatis traduntur. ut sagittis superjact nequeant. Hec facit ubertas soli, temperies coeli, aquarum abundantia (si libeat credere) ut sub una ficu turme condantur equitum. ex parte sine nominibus. + Nat. Hist. XII. 10. p. 326. Nune eas (arbores) exponam, quas mirata est Alexandri Magni victoria, orbe co patefacto. $ Nat. Hist. XII. 11. p.326. Ficus ibi exilia poma habet. Ipsa se semper serens, vastis diffun- ditur ramis ; quorum imi adeo in terram curvantur, ut annuo spatio infigantur, novamque sibi propaginem faciant circa parentem in orbem, quodam opere topiario. Intra sepem eam estivant pastores, opacam pariter et munitam vallo arboris, decord specie subter intuenti, proculve, fornicato ambitu. Superiores ejusdem rami in excelsum emicant, silvosd multitudine, vasto matris corpore, ut LX. passus plerique orbe colligant, umbrd vero bina stadia operiant. Foliorum latitudo pelte effi- giem Amazonice habet: hac causd, fructum integens, crescere prohibet. Rarusque est, nec fabe magnitudinem excedens: sed per folia solibus coctus, predulci sapore, dignus miraculo arboris, Gignitur circa Acesinem maxime amnem,
 * « small fruit. Continually propagating itself, it overspreads a vast space
 * with its branches, the lowest of which are in such a manner bent towards
 * Nat. Hist. XII. 13. Vol. II. p. 327. ed. Bip. Genera arborum Macedones narravere, majore