elebrated Banian-tree in the East-India Company's Botanical Garden on
the banks of the Hooghly, immediately opposite Garden Reach. This tree
is, without exception, the most splendid vegetable production I ever
saw: and its immense size and great age may be judged of, when I
mention, that a friend in whom I place the utmost confidence told me, he
measured the circumference of the space it shaded at noon-day, and found
that, allowing eighteen inches square per man, there was sufficient room
for eighteen thousand men to stand under the shade of this venerable
patriarch of the forest. This could be effected, however, only by
removing the many stems of the tree which now occupy nearly the whole
space covered by the branches, and are so numerous and thick, that it is
impossible to trace the parent one. It is a mighty tree, and worthy of
the proud place it occupies in the first botanical garden in the world.

What a wonderful change a few short years bring about in these days of
improvement! When I first knew Calcutta, there was no such thing as an
overland conveyance for letters; and, as for sending a ship to China
against the monsoon, no one ever dreamed of it. The whole world is now a
witness of the regularity of the monthly communication with England
_via_ the Red Sea; and the passage to and from China is made at all
seasons of the year, in defiance of monsoons and all other impediments.
The spirited owner and commander of the barque, "Red Rover," has the
credit of first shewing to the world, that the north-east monsoon in the
Chinese Sea was to be conquered by perseverance in a small vessel: his
success exceeded, I believe, his own sanguine expectations, and it is
pleasing to add, that he was amply rewarded in a pecuniary point of view
for his exertions. His example was soon followed by other parties
connected with the opium-trade; and the communication between China,
Calcutta, and Bombay is now regularly kept up all the year through, by
as fine a fleet of clippers as ever rode the sea, commanded by men who
appear to defy the weather. They make their passages in a wonderfully
short period of time, and stand high in the opinion of the mercantile
community of India. They are well paid, as they deserve to be, for the
trying work they have to go through; and many of them have recently
returned to their native country with comfortable, if not ample
independencies.

Another improvement of great importance to the trade of Calcut