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242 p f a n t Tsoro, IsegsQt»/, cmil Tsqne/*,
following description of this sacred tree given by Pietro Della Vallé
at the commencement of the seventeenth century ;—“ On one side
of the town, on a large open space, one sees towering a magnificent
tree, similar to those which I had noticed near Hormuz, and which
were called Lul, but here were known as Ber. The peasants of
this country have a profound veneration for this tree, both on
account of its grandeur and its antiquity: they make pilgrimages
to it, and honour it with their superstitious ceremonies, believing
that the goddess Párvati, the wife of Mahadeva, to whoin it is dedicated,
has it under her protecilion. In the trunk of this tree, at a
little distance from the ground, they have roughly carved what is
supposed to be the head of an idol, but which no one can recognise
as bearing any semblance to a human being ; however, like the
Romans, they paint the face of the idol red, and adorn it with
fiowers, and with leaves of a tree which they call here Pan, but in
other parts of India Betel. These fiowers and leaves ought to be
always fresh, and so they are often changed. The pilgrims who
come to visit the tree receive as a pious souvenir/he dried leaves
which have been replaced by fresh ones. The idol has eyes of
gold and silver, and is decorated with jewellery offered by pious
persons who have attributed to it the miraculous cure of ophthalmic
complaints they have suffered from.................................They
take the greatest care of the tree, of every branch, nay, of every
leaf, and will not permit either man or beast to damage or profane
it. Other Banyan or Pagod trees have obtained great eminence.
One near Mangee, near Patna, spread over a diameter of three
hundred and seventy feet, and it required nine hundred and
twenty feet to surround the fifty or sixty stems by which the tree
was supported. Another covered an area of one thousand seven
hundred square yards ; and many of almost equal _ dimensions are
found in different parts of India and Cochin-China.” In the
Atharvaveda mention is made of an all-powerful amulet, which
is a reduction, on a small scale, of a Banyan-tree, possessing a
thousand stems, to each of which is attributed a special magical
property.
B A O B A B .:—The leviathan Baobab {Adansonia) is an object
of reverential worship to the negroes of Senegal, where it is
asserted that some of these trees exist which are five thousand
years old. It is reputed to be the largest tree in the world, and
may readily be taken at a distance for a grove: its/runk is often
one hundred feet in circumference; but its height is not so wonderful
as its enormous lateral bulk. The central branch rises
perpendicularly, the others spread out in all direcitions, and attain
a length of sixty feet, touching the ground at their extremities,
and equalling in bulk the noblest trees. The wood is spongy and
soon decays, leaving the trunks hollow. In these hollow trunks
the negroes suspend the dead bodies of those who are refused the
honour of burial; and in this position the bodies are preserved
p F a n t 1íDoí*e, T scg© ^ /, anel Tsqclq/*, 2 4 3
without any process of embalming. The magnificent snowy
blosscims are regarded with peculiar reverence at the instant they
open into bloom. The leaves are used medicinally, and as a condiment;
dried and powdered, they constitute Lalo, a favourite
article with the Africans, who mix it daily with their food, to prevent
undue perspiration; a fibre is obtained from the bark that is
so strong as to have given rise in Bengal to the saying, “ As
secure as an elephant bound with a Baobab rope.” The gourd-like
fruit, called Monkey-bread and Ethiopian Sour Gourd, is also
eaten, and is prized for its febrifugal qualities.
B A R B E R R Y .—The Barhcrxy {Berheris vulgaris) was formerly
called the Pipperidge-bush, and was regarded with superstitious
dislike by farmers, who believed that it injured Wheat crops,
even if growing a hundred yards off, by imparting to the Corn the
fungus which causes rust. In Italy, the Barberry is looked upon
as the Holy Thorn, or the plant which furnished the crown of
Thorns used at our Lord s crucifixion : it seems to be so regarded
because its Thorns grow together in sets of three at each joint of
the branch. The Barberry is under the dominion of Venus.
H A R L E Y . Barley is a symbol of riches and abundance.
The God Indra is called “ He who ripens Barley,” and in many of
their religious ceremonies the Indians introduce this cereal, viz.,
at the birth of an infant, at weddings, at funerals, and at certain
of their sacrificial rites. Barley is claimed by astrologers as
a notable plant of Saturn.
B A R O M E T Z .—The Barometz, or Scythian Lamb {Polypodium
Barometz), is a name given to a Fern growing in Tartary,
the root of which, says Prof. Martyn, from the variety of its form]
IS easily made by art to take the form of a lamb (called by the
Tartars Borametz), “ or rather that of a rufous dog, which the common
names in China and Cochin-China imply, namely, Cau-tich and Kew-
tsu.J _ The description given of this strange Fern represents the root
as rising above the ground in an oblong form, covered all over with
hairs : towards one end it frequently becomes narrower and then
thicker, so as to give somewhat of the shape of a head and neck,
and it has sometimes two pendulous hairy excrescences resembling
ears ; at the other end a short shoot extends out into a tail. Four
fronds are chosen in a suitable position, and are cut off to a proper
length, to . represent the le g s : and thus a vegetable lamb is produced.
Loureiro affirms that the root, when fresh cut, yields a
juice closely resembling the blood of animals.----- Kircher has given
a figure of the Tartarian Lamb, in which the lamb is represented as
the fruit of some plant on the top of a stalk.----- Parkinson, in the
frontispiece/o his Paradisus Terrestris, has depidted this Lamb-plant
as growing in the Garden of Eden, where it appears to be browsing
on the surrounding herbage. Scaliger has given a detailed account
of the Barometz, which he calls “ a wondrous plant indeed
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