BANYAN, ban'yon or biin-ytin' (Hind. banya, Berg. lataiya, Skt. vanij, merchant, as the tree is used by native merchants as a market-place), also spelled BANIAN, I"teus Itenybaknsis. A tree, native of India. growing to a height of 70 to 100 feet, remarkable for its vast rooting branches. The banyan-tree is extensively plant ed, but occurs in a wild state only in the Lower Himalayas and the Deccan Hills. It is a species of fig (q.v.) : has ovate, heart-shaped entire leaves, about S or 6 inches long; and produces a fruit of a rich scarlet color, not larger than a cherry, growing in pairs from the axils of the leaves. The branches send shoots downward, which, when they have rooted, become stems, the tree in this manner spreading over a great surface, and enduring for many ages. A famous banyan-tree exists in the Botanic at Calcutta, India. This tree is known to be about a century old. Its main trunk is 40 feet in cir cumference, and there are 230 additional trunks 6 to 10 feet in circumference. One has been de scribed as having no fewer than 350 stems, equal to large oaks, and more than 3000 smaller ones.
covering a space sufficient to contain 7000 per sons. The vegetation of the banyan seldom be gins on the ground. The seeds are deposited by birds in the crowns of palms. and send down roots which embrave and eventually kill the palm. As the banyan gets old it breaks up into separate masses, the original trunk decaying. and the props becoming separate trunks of the different portions. The wood of the banyan is light. porous, and of no value. The bark is re garded by the Hindu physicians as a powerful tonic, and is administered in diabetes. The white glutinous juice is used to relieve toothache, and as an application to the soles of the feet when inflamed. Bird-lime is also made from it. num-lac is obtained in abundance front the ban yan-tree. The banyan-tree is beautifully de scribed by Southey in his poem, "The Curse of Kehama." The banyan has been successfully con veyed to other lands, fine specimens being report ed in Honolulu and elsewhere. The name 'ban yan-tree' is often improperly applied to •icus In dica, a somewhat smaller tree.