where it grew; but shoots are springing up from the root. This tree was doubtless one of the Convent Garden; which, in the reign of Elizabeth, bounded the Strand, on the north, extending from St. Martin's Lane to Drury Lane-these two lanes being the only approaches to the neighbouring village of St. Giles.

The Pocock Fig Tree is one of the most celebrated in this country, and was once supposed to have been the first of the white Marseilles figs introduced into England. The tradition is, that it was brought from Aleppo by Dr. Pocock, the celebrated traveller, and planted in the garden of the Regius Professor of Hebrew at Christ Church, Oxford, in the year 1648. An extract from a communication by Mr. William Baxter, curator of the Botanical Garden at Oxford, read before the Horticultural Society in 1819, contains the latest history of this tree. It received considerable damage from the fire that happened at Christ Church on the 3rd of March, 1809: till that time, the large trunk mentioned by Dr. John Sibthorpe, in Martyn's edition of Miller's Gardener's Dictionary, remained. In order to preserve it from the injuries of the weather, this trunk had been covered with lead; but at the time of the fire the lead was stolen, and, soon after, the trunk itself decayed, and was removed. The tree in 1819 was in a very flourishing state. There are some remains of the old trunk to be seen a few inches above the surface of the ground. The branches then growing were not more than eight or ten years old; but those in the middle of the tree were twenty-one feet high.

It is probable that standard fig-trees were formerly much more common in this country than at present. Bradley, an old writer on agriculture, mentions an ancient fig-tree at Windsor, which grew in a gravelpit, and bore many bushels every year, without any pains being bestowed upon it.

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In the fourth volume of the Horticultural Transactions, there is a very interesting account, by Mr. Sabine, of some standard fig-trees in the garden of a cottage at Compton, near Worthing, in Sussex. The garden in which they stand slopes gently to the south, is protected on the north by a thick grove of apple and plum trees, and the climate is very mild. The number of the fig-trees," says Mr. Sabine, "is fourteen; they occupy the principal part of the garden, which is very small, and are in perfect health; their average height is about ten feet; and, if any of the larger ones were detached, they would cover a space of twelve feet in diameter. Their stems are not large the plants are bushes rather than trees, for the branches spread in all directions from the root. These are propped up by stakes, but many of them are suffered to hang near the ground." Mr. Kennard, to whom they belonged, informed Mr. Sabine, that though the quality varied, there always was a crop; that the figs began to ripen in the end of August, or beginning of September, and continued during October; that the crop was generally from the spring figs, though occasionally a few of the autumn ones ripened; that he manured the ground every autumn; and that he pruned as little as possible.

In the neighbourhood of Worthing, and indeed along nearly all the south-east coast of Sussex, figtrees are very common in the gardens. At Tarring (about two miles from Worthing) there is a remarkable plantation of figs, called by the inhabitants of that village, "The Fig-garden." The trees, which are about eighty in number, grow luxuriantly at intervals of about twelve feet, on the sides of the paths. They are about fifteen feet high; and the stems are from six to eleven inches in diameter. We saw them on the first of September, 1829, bearing a most abundant crop. The people to whom the

garden belonged knew nothing of the history of these trees; but an old inhabitant of the village told us that he thought they had been planted about forty years.

With the requisite degree of care, figs may be readily obtained in this country in a hothouse; but they require a mode of cultivation so peculiar, that if it is wished to procure them in perfection they ought to be cultivated along with no other fruit, and then two or three crops may be gathered.

Of the fig-tree, botanists now describe very many species. One of these, the banian tree (Ficus Indica) deserves notice, not as a fruit tree, but from its being a sacred tree with the Hindoos in the East Indies, from the vast size that it attains, and from the singularity of its growth. The fruit does not exceed that of a hazel nut in bigness; but the lateral branches send down shoots which take root, till, in course of time, a single tree extends itself to a considerable grove. This remarkable tree was known to the ancients. Strabo mentions that after the branches have extended about twelve feet horizontally, they shoot down in the direction of the earth, and there root themselves; and when they have attained maturity, they propagate onward in the same manner, till the whole becomes like a tent supported by many columns. This tree

is also noticed by Pliny with a minute accuracy, which has been confirmed by the observations of modern travellers; and Milton has rendered the description of the ancient naturalist almost literally, in the following beautiful passage :

"Branching so broad along, that in the ground

The bending twigs take root; and daughters grow
About the mother tree; a pillared shade,

High over-arched, with echoing walks between.
There oft the Indian herdsman, shunning heat,
Shelters in cool; and tends his pasturing herds
At loop-holes cut through thickest shade."

Some specimens of the Indian fig-tree are mentioned

Z

as being of immense magnitude. One near Mangee, twenty miles to the westward of Patna, in Bengal, spread over a diameter of 370 feet. The entire circumference of the shadow at noon was 1116 feet, and it required 920 feet to surround the fifty or sixty stems by which the tree was supported. Another covered an area of 1700 square yards; and many of almost equal dimensions are found in different parts of India and Cochin China, where the tree grows in the greatest perfection. A particular account of the banian tree (sometimes called the pagod tree) is given in Cordiner's Ceylon.' Mr. Southey has also described it both in the spirit of a poet and a naturalist. The plate on page 251, which is copied from Mr. Daniell's splendid work on Oriental Scenery,' well illustrates this description:

"'Twas a fair scene wherein they stood,
A green and sunny glade amid the wood,
And in the midst an aged Banian grew.
It was a goodly sight to see
That venerable tree,

For o'er the lawn, irregularly spread,
Fifty straight columns propt its lofty head;
And many a long depending shoot
Seeking to strike its root,

Straight, like a plummet, grew towards the ground.
Some on the lower boughs, which crost their way,
Fixing their bearded fibres, round and round,
With many a ring and wild contortion wound;
Some to the passing wind, at times, with sway
Of gentle motion swung;

Others of younger growth, unmov'd, were hung
Like stone-drops from the cavern's fretted height.
Beneath was smooth and fair to sight,

Nor weeds nor briers deform'd the natural floor;
And through the leafy cope which bower'd it o'er
Came gleams of checquer'd light.

So like a temple did it seem, that there
A pious heart's first impulse would be prayer*."

* Curse of Kehama.

THE BANIAN-Ficu Indica.