The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-09-03
From the Statesman.

| N NEWCOMER in India was once
VI advised by an old resident to
get up the trees" This advice
| did not apply as the recipient of 1t at
first not unnaturally, supposed, to an in
nocent and inexpensive form of athletic
exercise, nor to the adoption of the habits
of the savage tribes known tree dwell
ers, but simply to the advisability of
| learning the names of the common trees
of the country and of acquiring the
power of recognizing them when seem
For one thing, it is by trees that travellers
off the beaten track are expected to find
their way An Indian vllager, be he ever
so ignorant in other respects, is as ia
mllar with the trees in his neighborhood
as London policeman is with the streets
on his beat Instead of being told to take
three to the right and two to the left"
you are directed to make straight for a
big banyan whose crest is to be discerned
on the horizon. Pass to the east of it
and you will come to three palm trees;
keep them ON your right hand and pass
between tamarind and mango, and
you will hit upon a path that will take
you straight to the village you are search
ing for. So familiar are the people with
the trees that the writer has met a viii
lager who, after he became blind, could
| identify any tree by lingering its leaves
Then the economic Importance of trees
can only be realized by those who have
lived among the villagers. The food sup
plies are not by any means limited to
| the fruits of commerce. and flowers,
leaves, twigs and roots are largely used
as well. The leaves of certain trees, PIN
ned together by twigs, serve as plates.
or are fashioned into drinking cups. A
great many domestic remedies for man
! and beast, are also derived from the for
est and there Is no doubt that some of
them are efficacious 1t is not so very
| long since some OF the hill and Jungle
| tribes of India, like our first parents,
] clothed themselves with leaves. and 1t
! is said that It required a military ex-
petition to induce some of the women in
Orissa TO discard this primitive dress in
| favor of cotton saries. man will often
make his house entirely from trees, plas
| tered with little mud, the roof being
constructed of Palmyra palm leaves or
| others of a large size and firm texture.
Dyes. tans ink, books, shoes, waterproof
capes. gum, sealing wax rope-there are
but very few of the miscellaneous arti-
eles that are got from trees. No wonder
the planting of a grove of trees ranks
| with digging a tank or sinking a well as
a work of religious merit. If we were to
| include the bamboo and similar plants the
list of manufactured articles would be
endless; but the bamboo Is a grass and
not tree Even to mention the common
trees of India would be lengthy task. SO
we confine ourselves to the most familiar.
Nearly all that are about to be mentioned
are found either within the writer's COM
pound or In Its Immediate neighborhood.
First come the fb tribe: the banyan and
his brothers. The banyan. the big brother
of the family, is our very own-Ficus ben
galensis That true tree lover oliver Wen
dell Holmes wrote that his tree wives
were more numerous than Brigham
Young's human ones. The ring with which |
he welded them was thirty foot measur-
ing tape; with which he encircled them at
the height of Ave feet above the ground.
His first-class trees were those whose
branches at their widest circumference
were more than a hundred feet. His
favorites were elms; and he made some
remarks about cherishing the hope of still
having pleasure at the elm, even when
youth was no longer on the PROV. If
merit goes by bulk no doubt the banyan
comes first, and circumference of twenty
feeet round the trunk could hardly be re-
garded as a mark of distinction in 1t. But
1t is often a parasite, vampire, sucking
the life blood of its victim and crushing
1t to death. Its fruit is eaten by the very
poor, elephants greatly relish its leaves
and branches, but it's widespread. CRATE
ful shade is perhaps its most valued pro-
duct much more handsome tree. more
independent and self-respecting, Is the
pipal the Ficus religosa. 1t is the most !
sacred of the five trees regarded with
veneration by the Hindus, the other four
being the gular, the bargad, the pakar
and the mango. Brahma. vishu and silva
are all supposed to inhabit 1t, and no one
can tell how many minor spirits as well.
whose whisperings are supposed to be
heard when the leaves. suspended by their
long, slended stalks, fiutter in the slightest
breath of wind If man takes pipal
leaf in his hand and crushing 1t expresses