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VIII. Account of the Banyan-Tree, or Ficus Indica, as found in the ancient Greek and Roman Authors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2009

George Henry Noehden
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Extract

Among the objects of Natural History, which attracted the attention, and excited the wonder of the followers of Alexander the Great, when that illustrious conqueror Carried his victorious arras across the Indus, was the Banyan, or Indian Fig-Tree. It is well known that that extraordinary man, whose talents, as well as achievements, have certainly no parallel in history, was generally imbued with a love of science, and, as Pliny expresses it, inflamed with a passion for Natural History.* To his great preceptor, Aristotle, he had delegated the care of digesting, and elucidating, the vast materials that were collected, in the king's progress through a quarter of the globe, which, to the inhabitants of Europe, was absolutely a new world.

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Papers Read Before the Society
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Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland , Volume 1 , January 1827 , pp. 119 - 132
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Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1827

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References

page 119 note * Pliny speaks, in particular, of one branch of natural history, namely, zoology, in the cultivation of which, he says, Alexander had taken a warm interest: but no remarkable object could be indifferent to such a mind. Nat. Hist. VIII. 17. Vol. II. p. 79. ed. Bip.Google ScholarAlexandro Magno rege inflammato cupidine animalium naturas noscendi, delegatâque hac commentatione Aristoteli, summo in omni doctrinâ viro, aliquot millia hominum in totius Asiæ Græciæque tractu parere jussa, omnium quos venatus, ancupia, piscatusque alebant: quibusque vivaria, armenta, piscinæ, aviaria, in curâ eŕant: ne quid usquam gentium ignoraretur ab eo: quos percontando quinquaginta ferme volumina ilia præclara de animalibus condidit. The immense sums of money, which the king, besides, bestowed upon Aristotle, for the prosecution of his researches, are mentioned by Athenæus, IX, p. 398, &c.Google ScholarCasaub, . (IX. c. 13. T. III. p. 447. ed. Schweigh, .)Google Scholar This grant of money ¦lian (Var. Hist. IV. 19.Google Scholar) by a mistake, attributes to Philip, the father of Alexander. See Buhle, in Aristotelis Vita (Vol. I. Oper. Aristotel.), p. 96Google Scholar; and Bibliothek, Schlegel's Indische. Vol. I. p. 160.Google Scholar

page 120 note * N. H. VIII. 17. Bip. The passage has been transcribed in the foregoing note.Google Scholar

page 120 note † , de plantis libri duo, two books on plants. See the Life of Aristotle, by Laertius, Diogenes, in the 1st volume of Buhle's edition of Aristotle's works, p. 22. Also his life by an anonymous author; ib. p. 64.Google Scholar

page 120 note ‡ Nat. Hist. VIII. 17. Vol. II. p. 79. ed. Bip.—quinquaginta ferme volumina illa præclara de animalibus condidit; quæ a me collecta in arctum, cum iis quæ ignoraverat, quæso ut legentes boni consulant, in universis rerum naturæ operibus, medioque clarissimi regum omnium desiderio, curâ nostrâ breviter peregrinantes.Google Scholar

page 121 note * Historia Plantarum.

page 121 note † De Causis Plantarum.

page 121 note ‡ Plantarum, Historia, lib. I. c. 12. p. 13.Google Scholar (ed. Heinsii, , Lugd. Bat. 1693.)Google Scholar

page 121 note § Plantarum, Historia, lib. IV. c. 5. p. 77. .Google Scholar

page 122 note * Plantarum, De Causis, Lib. II. c. 14. p. 249.— .Google Scholar

page 123 note * Third edition, p. 163.

page 123 note † .

page 123 note ‡ There may perhaps have been some inaccuracy in the calculations with which Mr. Marsden was furnished: for it does not appear that he measured the tree alluded to himself. I find it difficult to reconcile some of the dimensions, as they are given. In the text, Mr. Marsden expresses himself thus: “It (the Banyan-tree) possesses the uncommon property of dropping “roots or fibres from certain parts of its boughs, which, when they touch the earth, become “new stems, and go on increasing to such an extent, that some have measured, in circum “ference of the branches, upwards of a thousand feet, and have been said to afford shelter to a “troop of horse.” To that passage a note is subjoined to this effect: “The following is an “account of the dimensions of a remarkable banian or bur-tree, near Mangee, twenty miles west “of Patna, in Bengal: Diameter, three hundred and sixty-three to three hundred and seventy “five feet. Circumference of shadow at noon eleven hundred and sixteen feet. Circumference “of the several stems, in number fifty or sixty, nine hundred and twenty-one.” Now if some trees, as is said in one place, have measured in circumference of the branches, upwards of a thousand feet; or if, as is stated in the note, the circumference of the shadow at noon is eleven hundred and sixteen feet, it is not to be conceived how the diameter of the stem alone can be from three hundred and sixty-three to three hundred and seventy-five feet, or its circumference nine hundred and twenty-one. The whole computation, I confess, is not clear to my view; and perhaps some error in the numbers may have taken place.

page 124 note * Mr. Marsden speaks of what Theophrastus calls the roots, in this manner, p. 163: “The “tree possesses the uncommon property of dropping roots or fibres from certain parts of its “boughs, which, when they touch the earth, become new stems. These fibres look like ropes “attached to the branches.”

page 124 note † Pliny, (Nat. Hist. XII. 11. p. 326. Vol. 11, ed. Bip.) says: “Foliorum latitude peltæ effigiem “Amazonicæ habet” Milton, in a passage to be quoted afterwards, calls this shield, Amazonian targe.Google Scholar

page 124 note ‡ Pliny, , Nat. Hist. VII, 2, Vol. II. p. 9Google Scholar, ed. Bip, Maxima in Indiâ gignuntur animalia. Arbores quidem tantæ proceritatis traduntur. ut sagittis superjaci nequeant. Hæc facit ubertas soli, temperies coeli, aquarum abundantia (si libeat credere) ut sub unâ ficu turmæ condantur equitum.

page 125 note * Nat. Hist. XII. 13. Vol. II. p. 327. ed. Bip. Genera arborum Macedones narravere, majore ex parte sine nominibus.Google Scholar

page 125 note † Nat. Hist. XII. 10. p. 326. Nunc eas (arbores) exponam, quas mirata est Alexandri Magni victoria, orbe eopatefacto.Google Scholar

page 125 note ‡ Nat. Hist. XII. 11. p. 326. Ficus ibi exilia poma habet. Ipsa se semper serens, vastis diffunditur 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 æstivant pastores, opacam pariter et munitam vallo arboris, decorâ specie subter intuenti, proculve, fornicato ambitu. Superiores ejusdem rami in excelsum emicant, silvosâ multitudine, vasto tnatris corpore, ut LX. passus plerique orbe colligant, umbrâ vero bina stadia operiant. Foliorum latitudo peltæ effigiem Amazonicæ habet: hac causâ, fructum integens, crescere prohibet. Rarusque est, nec fabæ magnitudinem excedens: sed per folia solibus coctus, prædulci sapore, dignus miraculo arboris, Gisnitur circa Acesinem maxime amnem.Google Scholar

page 126 note * In Paradise Lost, IXth Book, v. 1099 to 1111.

page 126 note † Plin. Vastis diffunditur ramis.

page 126 note ‡ Adeo in terram curvanturt ut annuo spatio infigantur.

page 126 note ‖ Novamque sibi propaginem faciant circa parentem in orbem; and afterwards, superioris ejusdem rami in excelsam emicant-vsto matris corpore.

page 126 note § Decorâ specie, subter intuenti, proculve, fornicato ambitu.

page 127 note * Intra sepem earn æstivant pastores, opacam pariter et munitam vallo arboris.

page 127 note † Foliorum latitudo peltæ effigiem Amazonic7aelig; habet.

page 128 note * Plin. Epist. III. 5.

page 128 note † Lib. IX. c. 1, p. 193. Vol. II. ed. Bip. Hinc Poro amneque superato, ad Indiæ processit. Silvæ erant prope in immensum spatium diffusæ, procerisque et in eximiam altitudinem editis arboribus umbrosæ: plerique rami instar ingentium stipitum flexi in humum, rursus, qua se curvaverant, erigebantur adeo, ut species esset non rami resurgentis, sed arboris ex suá radice generatæ.Google Scholar

page 129 note * Lib. XV. p. 694. ed. Casaub. (p. 1016. ed. Almelov.) So this passage ought to be connected: but in the text of the editions (which, generally speaking, is very corrupt) the following sentence is interposed, between the words and being evidently out of its place: .

page 130 note * T

page 130 note †

page 130 note ‡ It is peculiar to several species of the genus Ficus, among others to the Ficus virens, a large tree, which is a native of South America.

page 131 note * Biblioth. Histor. Lib. XVII. T. II. p. 230. lin 73. ed. Wessel.— .

page 131 note *† Indica, Historia, p. 324 and 325, ed. Gronov, . Lugd. Bat. 1704.Google Scholar

page 132 note * History of Sumatra, 3d ed. p. 163, note: “Under this tree sat a naked Fakir, who had “occupied that situation for twenty-five years; but he did not continue there the whole year “through, for his vow obliged him to be, during the four cold months, up to his neck in the “waters of the Ganges,”