ment of the garden.* Dr. Falconer has ascertained
satisfactorily that it is only seventy-five years old
annual rings, size, &c., afford no evidence in such a
case, hut people were alive a few years ago, who
remembered well its site being occupied (in 1782) by
a wild Date-palm, out of whose crown the Banyan
sprouted, and beneath Which a Fakir sat. I t is a
remarkable fact that the banyan seed rarely vegetates
on the ground; hut its figs are eaten by birds, and
the seeds deposited in the crowns of palms, where
they grow, sending down roots that embrace and
eventually kill the palm, which decays away. This
tree is now eighty feet high, and throws an area 300
feet in diameter into a dark, cool shade. The gigantic
limbs spread out about ten feet above the ground, and
on Dr. Falconer’s arrival there were no more than
eighty-nine descending roots or props ; there are now
several hundreds, and the growth of this grand mass of
vegetation is proportionally stimulated and increased.
The props are induced to sprout by wet clay and moss
tied to the branches, beneath which a little pot of water
is hung, and after they have made some progress, they
are inclosed in bamboo tubes, and so coaxed down to
the ground. They are mere slender whip-cords before
reaching the earth, where they root, remaining very
* Had this tree been growing in 1849 over the great palm-stove at Kew,
only thirty feet of each end of that vast structure would have been uncovered
: its increase was proceeding so rapidly, that by this time it could
probably cover the whole. Large banyans are common in Bengal; but
few are so symmetrical as this in shape and height. As the tree gets old,
it breaks up into separate masses, the original trunk decaying, and the
props becoming separate trunks of the different portions.
lax for several months; but gradually, as they grow
and swell to the size of cables, they tighten, and
eventually become very tense. This is a curious
phenomenon, and so rapid, that it appears to be
due to the rooting part mechanically dragging down
the aerial. The branch meanwhile continues to grow
outwards, and being supplied by its new support,
thickens beyond it, whence the props always slant
outwards from the ground towards the circumference
of the tree.
During my stay at the gardens, Dr. Falconer
received a box of living plants packed in moss, and
transported in a frozen state by one of the ice ships
from North America:* they left in November, and
arriving in March, I was present at the opening of the
boxes, and saw 391 plants (the whole contents) taken
out in the most perfect state. They were chiefly fruit-
trees, apples, pears, peaches, currants, and gooseberries,
with beautiful plants of the Venus’ fly-trap. More
perfect success never attended an experiment: the
plants were in vigorous bud, and the day after being
released from their icy bonds, the leaves sprouted and
unfolded, and they were packed in Ward’s cases for
immediate transport to the Himalaya mountains.
I returned to Dorjiling on the 17th of April, and
Dr. Thomson and I commenced our arrangements for
proceeding to the Khasia mountains. We started on
* The ice from these ships is sold in the Calcutta market for a penny a
pound, to great profit; it has always proved an invaluable remedy in cases
of inflammation and fever, and has diminished mortality to a very appreciable
extent.