orrect, so aged and sacred
in the eyes of the people as to almost rival the temple in
attractiveness. It is an ancient bo-tree,--the sacred Indian
fig,--situated in the spacious grounds attached to the temple. It has
widely extended, scraggy limbs, is high, irregular in form, and
undoubtedly very old. It is as sincerely bowed down to by pilgrims
from afar as is the altar in the temple. Its very leaves are treasured
with devout care, and the pilgrim counts himself specially blessed who
is able to bear one away to his distant home, as a charm against all
earthly ills. No one will presume to pluck a leaf of this tree, much
as they may crave its possession. The leaf must fall from the branches
in its maturity, and of its own volition, in order to yield its
maximum of blessings to the holder. Local authority declares the Kandy
bo-tree to be the oldest one living. Its record, they say, has been
kept since three hundred years before Christ, or say for two thousand
two hundred years. As there is at least one other similar tree in
Ceylon for which about the same degree of antiquity is claimed, it may
reasonably be doubted if both stories are correct. The other tree is
situated among the ruins of Anuradhapura, planted, as its record
declares, two hundred and forty years before the Christian era. It is
somewhat surprising how universally the extreme age which is claimed
for this tree is credited even by the English residents of the island
who are familiar with Buddhist chronicles. That both these trees are
very old is plain enough, but when we designate time past by the
thousands of years, one must be somewhat over-credulous to accord such
great antiquity to either of them, or indeed to any object of a
perishable nature. And yet there are trees belonging to the locust
family, as the author can bear testimony, growing among the West India
Islands, declared to be over three thousand years old. This is in part
corroborated by well-known visible characteristics of the locust which
are clearly defined, and many intelligent arborists credit their
longevity. There are thousands of bo-trees planted all over India
proper and Ceylon, in memory of Buddha, which are held of a sacred
character, and no good Buddhist will cut one down. It will be
remembered that Humboldt saw a cypress in Mexico, a league from the
capital, in the Chapultepec grove, which he estimated to be six
thousand years old. It does seem as though scientists were a somewhat