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FIGURE 2

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 334 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FIGURE 2 .-See also:

India-See also:rubber See also:Tree, Ficus elastica, showing spreading woody roots. in it, to induce earlier ripening. The ancients, after soaking it in See also:water, preserved it like the See also:common fig. The porous See also:wood is only See also:fit for See also:fuel. The sacred fig, See also:peepul, or bo, Ficus religiosa, a large tree with See also:heart-shaped, See also:long-pointed leaves on slender footstalks, is much grown in See also:southern See also:Asia. The leaves are used for tanning, and afford See also:lac, and a See also:gum resembling caoutchouc is obtained from the juice; but in India it is chiefly planted with a religious See also:object, being regarded as sacred by both Brahmans and Buddhists. The former believe that the last See also:avatar of See also:Vishnu took See also:place beneath its shade. A gigantic bo, described by See also:Sir J. See also:Emerson See also:Tennent as growing near Anarajapoora, in See also:Ceylon, is, if tradition may be trusted, one of the See also:oldest trees in the See also:world. It is said to have been a See also:branch of the tree under which Gautama See also:Buddha became endued with his divine See also:powers, and has always been held in the greatest veneration. The See also:figs, however, hold as important a place in the religious fables of the See also:East as the ash in the myths of Scandinavia. Ficus elastica, the India-rubber tree (figure 2), the large, oblong, glossy leaves, and See also:pink buds of which are so See also:familiar in our greenhouses, furnishes most of the caoutchouc obtained from the East Indies.

It grows to a large See also:

size, and is remarkable 334 for the snake-like roots that extend in contorted masses around the See also:base of the See also:trunk. The small See also:fruit is unfit for See also:food. Ficus bengalensis, or the See also:Banyan, See also:wild in parts of See also:northern India, but generally planted throughout the See also:country, has a woody See also:stem, branching to a height of 70 to 100 ft. and of vast extent with heart-shaped entire leaves terminating in acute points. Every branch from the See also:main See also:body throws out its own roots, at first in small See also:tender See also:fibres, several yards from the ground; but these continually grow thicker until they reach the See also:surface, when they strike in, increase to large trunks, and become See also:parent trees, See also:shooting out new branches from the See also:top, which again in See also:time suspend their roots, and these, swelling into trunks, produce other branches, the growth continuing as long as the See also:earth contributes her sustenance. On the See also:banks of the See also:Nerbudda stood a celebrated tree of this See also:kind, which is supposed to be that described by See also:Nearchus, the See also:admiral of See also:Alexander the See also:Great. This tree once covered an See also:area so immense, that it was known to shelter no fewer than 7000 men, and though much reduced in size by the destructive See also:power of the floods, the See also:remainder was described by See also:James See also:Forbes (1749-1819), in his See also:Oriental See also:Memoirs (1813–1815) as nearly 2000 ft. in circumference, while the trunks large and small exceeded 3000 in number. The tree usually grows from seeds dropped by birds on other trees. The See also:leaf-axil of a See also:palm forms a frequent receptacle for their growth, the palm becoming ultimately strangled by the growth of the fig, which by this time has See also:developed numerous daughter stems which continue to expand and See also:cover ultimately a large area. The famous tree in the Royal Botanic Gardens, See also:Calcutta, began its growth at the end of the 18th See also:century on a sacred date-palm. In 1907 it had nearly 250 aerial roots, the parent trunk was 42 ft. in girth, and its leafy See also:crown had a circumference of 857 ft.; and it was still growing vigorously. Both this tree and F. religiosa cause destruction to buildings, especially in See also:Bengal, from seeds dropped by birds germinating on the walls. The tree yields an inferior rubber, and a coarse rope is prepared from the bark and from the aerial roots.

End of Article: FIGURE 2

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