It once stood there under the shadow, partly upon and among the roots of a gigantic tree, the most beautiful _randu alas_ or “wild cotton-tree” (_Bombax malabaricus_ D. C.) I ever saw. A whole, so strikingly beautiful that it charmed the eyes of all who understood a little the language of lines and forms (and colours), and of harmony and contrast. “An image of life which kills, and rises again from death.” In 1901 conducting the Jena professor Ernst Haeckel to this spot, when on our journey home from the ruins of the Båråbudur, this scholar so sensible of nature’s beauty drew this rare scene in his sketch-book, and devoted himself for two or three hours to the contemplation of this combined creation of art and nature. And even to him the mutilation this majestic tree had already undergone in its frame of roots beautifully formed by nature, seemed to be a sacrilege _against_—just as very long ago the destruction of ancient art—_by_ Nature. But the latter worked quite unconsciously whereas the profaning hand of man _did not_. I know full well the most insignificant remainders of this ancient Art to be of great value to Science; as well as the creations of Nature; in my opinion however, it would have been by no means necessary to fell this gigantic tree in order to preserve this small produce of art, though others with a less developed sense for nature’s beauty may be inclined to think otherwise. The architect van de Kamer, one of the two members of the former Båråbudur Committee however, did not. He also thought it wrong to sacrifice this tree “not because the ruin doesn’t show us anything else we don’t know better preserved elsewhere; but because it might have been pulled down stone by stone, and then ... rebuilt again _without_ killing the tree itself.” That which had been hidden under the ... tree on the north side was crushed long ago, and I therefore thought the felling down of this tree a useless deed and _consequently_ a mistake. Attending in 1900 the Dutch Governor-general _Roozeboom_ to these ruins we were photographed under this tree by his adjutant the naval officer _de Booy_, but the photographic productions soon faded. The following year I accompanied the _Padang_ photographer C. Nieuwenhuis to _tyanḍi Pawon_ spending one night in the Båråbudur pasanggrahan (resthouse). Next day he successfully succeeded in photographing the glorious group which still speaks of the truth I asserted, though the tree itself has been lost for ever.