The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1873-02-13
The Banyan Tree.

The Banyan (Ficus b1dica) is indigenous
to India only. | call it one of the ''kings
of the Forest" because no other of the
vegetable giants ever measured 1.-THE of
five acres in circuit, or afforded shelter
from the torrid sun at one time to one
tenth of an army of ten thousand men.
No one who ever spent the long noon
tide of an Indian day under the capacious
shadow of banyan-tree, or slept unin-
iured during successive nights under
the protection from dews and rains of its
shingled foliage, or strolled leisurely for
hours along avenues and foot-paths bor-
dered by Towering shurbs and cooled by
gurgling streamlets, all within the boun-
daries of the repeating branches of sim
gle tree, will be disposed to dispute the
claims of the banyan to be counted as one
of the three monarchs of the woods.
When banyan first springs from its
seed, its method of growth is normal.
Like the oak, or elm, or beech, or maple,
it grows progi essively through Its differ.
ent stages of shoot, and plant, and shrub,
and sapling, and tree. There is nothing
about it that is peculiar. 1t observes the
ordinary routine of vegetable life. Rising
in height from year to year, it puts forth
limbs which are clothed in foliage. All
over the Orient there are banyans, still
short of their hundred years of age, which
are in no respect peculiar. Like other
denizens of the forest, the stranger would
pass them by unnoticed. But, when its
first century is passed, and its burden OF
successors becomes oppressive, like hale
old fellow of the human race, 1t seeks sup
port in its children.
Every one is familiar with the fact that
different trees shoot out their limbs at diff
ferent angles to the trunk. The Lom-
hardy poplar, in this respect, varies wide.
! ly from the elm, and the larch from the
willow. The English oak. branch leave:
the parent stem at so high an angle as tC
| be almost horizontal. The banyan does
the same. But the latter has length
that surpasses the former almost as mucf
as a ships cable does coachman's whip
lash. Now, it is a well known law il
mechanics, that the longer the arm thu
more powerful is the lever. The brancl
of the English oak ceases to grow be
yond the point where the lever powe
would wrench it from the stem. Th'
branch of the banyan does not. ON
stops at tive-and-twenty feet; the othe
not even at five hundred. Provision mus
be made, therefore, to give the latter sup
port, and its wonderful popularity is
that nature has made such provision.
In the banyan, when a horizonta
branch has been put forth to such lengtl
as to render it difficult to maintain itsel
without breaking. it lowers down from it
end one or two more roots, which, enter
ing the ground, send forth rootlets, an
themselves become new stems. In du
time the horizontal branches, which ono
were in danger of being destroyed b
their own weight, are as easily support
ed by the pillars as a bridge is by its pier
So the process goes on. Lateral brancht
shoot out from the main limbs, whic
latter are constantly growing till the
reach gigantic size. These lateral brancl
:, es also put down stems and shoot o!
branchlets, until it comes to pass that,
place of single tree, there is a wondrol
colonnade of stems, supporting as man
natural rafters, on which repose den
canopies of foliage.--N. s. Dodge IN A.
pleto1es' Journal.