wood; which
is thus easily drawn out by the hand. The bark thus obtained is fibrous
and tough, resembling a woven fabric: it is sewn at one end into a sack,
which is filled with sand, and dried in the sun."]

As we descend the hills the banyans[1] and a variety of figs make their
appearance. They are the Thugs of the vegetable world, for although not
necessarily epiphytic, it may be said that in point of fact no single
plant comes to perfection, or acquires even partial development, without
the destruction of some other on which to fix itself as its supporter.
The family generally make their first appearance as slender roots
hanging from the crown or trunk of some other tree, generally a palm,
among the moist bases of whose leaves the seed carried thither by some
bird which had fed upon the fig, begins to germinate. This root
branching as it descends, envelopes the trunk of the supporting tree
with a network of wood, and at length penetrating the ground, attains
the dimensions of a stem. But unlike a _stem_ it throws out no buds,
leaves, or flowers; the true stem, with its branches, its foliage, and
fruit, springs upwards from the crown of the tree whence the root is
seen descending; and from it issue the pendulous rootlets, which, on
reaching the earth, fix themselves firmly and form the marvellous growth
for which the banyan is so celebrated.[2] In the depth of this grove,
the original tree is incarcerated till, literally strangled by the folds
and weight of its resistless companion, it dies and leaves the fig in
undisturbed possession of its place. It is not unusual in the forest to
find a fig-tree which had been thus upborne till it became a standard,
now forming a hollow cylinder, the centre of which was once filled by
the sustaining tree: but the empty walls form a circular network of
interlaced roots and branches; firmly agglutinated under pressure, and
admitting the light through interstices that look like loopholes in a
turret.

[Footnote 1: Ficus Indica.]

[Footnote 2: I do not remember to have seen the following passage from
Pliny referred to as the original of Milton's description of this
marvellous tree:--

"Ipsa se serens, vastis diffunditur ramis: quorum imi adeo in terram
curvantur, ut annuo spatio infigantur, novamque sibi _propaginem faciant
circa parentem in orbem._ Intra septem eam _aestivant pastores_, opacam
pariter et munitam vallo arboris, decora specie subter intuenti,
proculve, _fornicato_