NOTES OF A NATURALIST.

THE BANIAN TREE, OR INDIAN FIG.-This is a native of several parts of the East Indies. It has a woody stem, branching to a great height and prodigious extent, with heart-shaped entire leaves, ending in acute points. Milton has thus beautifully and correctly described it, as the plant to which Adam advised Eve to have recourse after having eaten the forbidden fruit:

So counselled he; and both together went

Into the thickest wood: there soon they chose
The fig-tree; not that kind for fruit renown'd,'
But such as at this day, to Indians known,
In Malabar or Decan spreads her arms,
Branching so broad and long, that in the ground
The bended twigs takes root, and daughters grow
About the mother tree, a pillar'd shade
High over-arch'd, and echioing walks between.
There oft the Indian herdsman, shunning heat,
Shelters in cool, and tends his pasturing herds

A loop-holes cut through thickest shade: those leaves
They gather'd, broad as Amazonian targe,

And, with what skill they had, together sow'd,
To gird their waist.

Indeed the banian tree, or Indian fig, is perhaps the most beautiful of Nature's productions in that genial climate, where she sports with so much profusion and variety. Some of these trees are of amazing size and great extent, as they are continually increasing, and, contrary to most other things in animal and vegetable life, seem to be exempted from decay. Every branch from the main body throws out its own roots; at first, in small tender fibres, several yards from the ground: these, continually grow thicker until they reach the surface; and there striking in, they increase to large trunks, and become parent trees, shooting out new branches from the top: these in time suspend their roots, which, swelling into trunks, produce other branches, thus continuing in a state of progression as long as the earth, the first parent of them all, contributes her sus'enance. The Hindoos are peculiarly fond of the banian tree; they look L.36. 1.

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upon it as an emblem of the Deity, from its long duration, its outstretching arms, and overshadowing beneficence; they almost pay it divine honours, and

“Find a fane in every sacred grove."

Near these trees the most esteemed pagodas are generally erected; under their shade the Brahmins spend their lives in religious solitude; and the natives of all casts and tribes are fond of recreating in the cool recesses, beautiful walks, and lovely vistas of this umbrageous canopy, impervious to the hottest beams of a tropical sun.

A remarkably large tree of this kind grows on an island in the river Nerbedda, ten miles from the city of Baroche, in the province of Guzerat, a flourishing settlement formerly in possession of the East India Company, but ceded by the government of Bengal, at the treaty of peace concluded with the Mahrattas in 1783, to Mahdajee Scindia, a Mahratta chief. It is distinguished by the name of Cubbeer_Burr, which was given it in honour of a famous saint. It was once much larger than at present; but high floods have carried away the banks of the island where it grows, and with them such parts of the tree as had thus far extended their roots; yet what remains is about 2000 feet in circumference, measured round the principal stems; the overhanging branches, not yet struck down, cover a much larger space. The chief trunks of this single tree (which in size greatly exceeds our English elms and oaks), amount to 350; the smaller stems, forming stronger supporters, are more than 3000; and every one of these is casting out new branches, and lianging roots, in time to form trunks, and become the parents of a future progeny. Cubbeer Burr is famed throughout Hindostan for its great extent and surpassing beauty: the Indian armies generally encamp around it, and, at stated seasons, solemn jatarras, or Hindoo festivals, are held there, to which thousands of votaries repair from various parts of the Mogul empire. It is said that 7000 persons find ample room to repose under its shade. The English gentlemen, on their hunting and shooting parties, used to form extensive encampments, and spend weeks together under this delightful pavillion; which is generally filled with green wood-pigeons, doves, peacocks, and

a variety of feathered songsters; crowded with families of monkeys performing their antic trics, and shaded by bats of a large size, many of them measuring upwards of six feet from the extremity of one wing to the other. This tree not only affords shelter, but sustenance to all its inhabitants, being covered amidst its bright foliage with small figs of a rich scarlet, on which they all regale with as much delight as the lords of creations on their more various and costly fare.

These are the trees under which a sect of naked philosophers, called Gymnosophists, assembled in Arrian's days; and this historian of ancient Greece, it is observed by Forbes, in his Oriental Memoirs, affords a true picture of the Modern Hindoos:-"In winter the Gymnosophists enjoy the benefit of the sun's rays in the open air; and in summer, when the heat becomes excessive, they pass their time in cool and moist places, under large trees; which, according to the accounts of Nearchus, cover a circumference of five acres, and extend their branches so far, that 10,000 men may easily find shelter under them."

THE LANTERN FLY.-This luminous insect affords a light so great, that travellers, walking by night, are said to pursue their way with sufficient certainty by three or four of them being tied to a stick, and carried in the manner of a torch. Madame Merian, in her work on the Insects of Surinam, says “The Indians once brought me, before I knew that they shone by night, a number of these lantern flies, which I shut up in a large wooden box. In the night, they made such a noise that I awoke in a fright, and ordered a light to be brought, not being able to guess from whence the noise proceeded. As soon as I found that it came from the box, I opened it, but was still more alarmed, and let it fall to the ground in my fright, on seeing a flame of fire come out of it; and as many insects as came out, so many different flames appeared. When I found this to be the case, I recovered from my alarm, and again collected the insects, much admiring their splendid appearance. The light of one of these insects is sufficiently bright to see to read a newspaper by it."