The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1888-07-27
THE GIANT BANYAN.
Description of the Dig Tree OF Caicutta's
botanical Garden.

Description of the Dig Tree OF Caicutta's
botanical Garden.
But the great "sight" of Calcutta is
unquest.onably its splendid Botanical
garden, on the further shore of the
Hooghly, and the giant banyan tree
which stands in the midst of its palms
and bamboos like king amid his cour-
tiers. 1t is true that the five mile drive
thither across the Canning bridge and
through the endless bazars Of Howrah
(the Brooklyn of Calcutta) is anything
but an easy enterprise to achieve salts
factorily. If you start in the morning
the whole journey there and back is one
long martyrdom to heat and dust and
glare which only those who have been
in India can fully appreciate If you
start in the evening you arrive just in
time to see the whole garden vanish from
your eyes into the deepening darkness Of
night, and have to console yourself per-
force with the time honored joke, There
was nothing to be seen, and saw it
thoroughly" The latter result attended
the first effort which we ourselves made
to reach the renowned banyan, and the
bazaar happening to be unusually full
that night, our homeward drive through
it in the dark, with an accompaniment
of shouting and whip cracking worthy
of royal progress, wildly recalled
Sir George Trevelyan's famous definition
Of chip rs ga monosyllable used by
cabmen and omnibus drivers preparatory
to running over deaf people"
But such a spectacle as the monster
tree of Calcutta is well worth a double
journey, and our second attempt was
more fortunate than our first. Starting
from our hotel at p. M, we reached the
garden little before 8, and had already
driven more than half way across it when
our 'gharri'' (carriage) halted suddenly
at the entrance of long, straight
avenue flanked by two ranges of lofty
trees, and our Bengal driver, pointing to
the far end Of it with his lean, brown
forefinger, said impressively, "Dekho,
burrah zach wahan hai'' QooI, there is
the big tree).
We followed the pointing finger with
our eyes, but saw nothing except thick
grove of small trees, in which the path
seemed to lose itself, and this was all we
could make out till we got within about
100 yards of it. Then, to our amaze
ment, we found that the supposed grove
was all one giant tree, and that its count
less trunks were nothing more than the
shoots which it had sent down into the
earth from each of its mighty boughs, to
take root there and spring up again till
the whole plantation was covered. After
walking many yards beneath one huge
bough, and noting that this giant was
only one among scores-some OF which,
although SO vast and ponderous as to need
supports of solid brickwork, seem mere
twigs compared with the enormous mass
OF the parent stem-I began to have a
clearer idea of the real size of this vege-
table Goliath than I could ever have
gained from the inscription attached to
one of its largest branches stating that
circumference of its crown is $50, and
that it has sent down into the earth 252
"aerial roots. :"
The same inscription tells you that the
tree is more than 100 years old. When
it was first planted Warren Hastings
was turning his face homeward to figure
in the greatest political trial which Eng
land had seen since Cromwell and his
grim comrades sat in judgment upon
"the man Charles Stuart" Two-thirds
of India and the whole of Burmah were
still Independent of the British crown.
Frederick the Great was still reigning in
Berlin. The French revolution lay hid
in the unknown future, and the battle of
American independence, though nobly
fought, was not yet won. And it may
be that when not one stone of Calcutta
shall remain upon another, and when
tigers shall prowl and vultures shrek
over the ruins of the viaroy's palace,
the giant tree will still upreAr amid a vast
solitude those mighty boughs that once
shaded the bravest men and fairest wo-
men of India, a silent and solitary
mourner at the tomb of that great en-
pire whose childhood was coeval with its
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