Page:Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society - Volume 1.djvu/167

Dr. Nozupen’s Account of the Banyan-Tree. 131 fact, in the natural history of the tree, and most carefully set forth by Theophrastus, is not adverted to by Strabo.

I have hinted that, in some particulars, the Corypha umbraculifera, or Great Fan Palm, may have been confounded with the Ficus Indica, or Banyan. In a passage of Diodorus Siculus, where a large kind of Indian tree is spoken of, the Fan Palm seems to have been intended by the author. It is in the seventeenth book of his History, where the exploits of Alex- ander are related :* “ The king,” he says, “ having with his army passed “ the river, proceeded through a country extremely fertile. For it pro- «« duced different species of trees, of uncommon size, some having a height «« of seventy cubits, and such thickness in the stem, that four men could (about one hundred and twenty feet), nor the circumference of the stem (about twenty-four feet), nor the extent of shadow (about three hundred feet), can be reconciled with particulars, which have before been adduced as characteristic of the Banyan-tree.
 * « not fathom it, and making a shade of three acres.” Neither the height

The Banyan-tree, however, is undoubtedly alluded to in the following passage of Arrian. It is in that portion of his works, which is entitled Indian History. He is speaking of the Indian sophists, the wise men, or Fakirs, of ancient India, and continues thus:t ‘ These sophists go naked, “ summer, when the sun is overpowering, they retire to meadows, and ‘«« marshy places, under large trees, whose shade, Nearchus says, extends to “ tree; of such astonishing dimensions are those trees.” From the words of the original it would seem, that the five acres (or five hundred feet) mentioned, are to be taken for the radius of the circle, which would for the circumference give nearly the same measure, that, according to Strabo, Tepasas Toy moTapAV, Meonye die ywpas apeTH DiaPepovons * DevBewv yap elxe yévn DiarrarrovTa, nai TO uv vilos Exovta mnxaiv EBdounnovta, To OF maxos moyis Lao TeTTagay cvopaV TepInaubavouEver, ToIiV oe mrESewv THI ToLOLVTE. + Historia Indica, p. 324 and 325, ed. Gronov. Lugd. Bat. 1704. ‘Ouro: yupvol Siatdvras o: Topical, TOU pay yeIudvos vmrcubpia ev TH HNw, Tou de BEgous, Emnv 6 HAlos maxTEyn, Ev TOITL AEluioL nal Tow Enegiy, bro Devdgeot meyarow’ dv THY ciIny Necepyos abyet &s mrevre mreboa ev xinrw tEinverrbou nai ay pugious Umo Evi evdper oniageabas* THAmatre Elion Talra ta devdpec. S 2
 * and live in the open air, in winter, exposed to the sun; and in the
 * « five acres in a circle: and ten thousand men may be sheltered under one
 * Biblioth. Histor. Lib. XVII. T. II. p. 230. lin. 73. ed. Wessel. Autos 0: wet& Tis Juvapsws