Many of these beautiful trees have acquired an historic celebrity; and the famous Cubbeer-burr, on the banks of the Nerbuddah, thus called by the Hindoos in memory of a favourite saint, is supposed to be the same as that described by Nearchus, the Admiral of Alexander the Great, as being able to shelter an army under its far-spreading shade. ‘High floods have at various times swept away a considerable part of this extraordinary tree, but what still remains is near 2,000 feet in circumference, measured round the principal stems; the overhanging branches not yet struck down cover a much larger space; and under it grow a number of custard-apple and other fruit trees. The large trunks of this single colossus amount to a greater number than the days of the year, and the smaller ones exceed 3,000, each constantly sending forth branches and hanging roots to form other trunks and become the parents of a future progeny. ‘About a century ago a neighbouring rajah, who was extremely fond of field diversions, used to encamp under it in a magnificent style, having a saloon, drawing-room, dining-room, bed-chamber, bath, kitchen, and every other accommodation, all in separate tents; yet the noble tree not only covered the whole, together with his carriages, horses, camels, guards, and attendants, but also afforded with its spreading branches shady spots for the tents of his friends, with their servants and cattle. And in the march of an army it has been known to shelter 7,000 men.’[12] Such is the banyan--more wonderful than all the temples and palaces which the pride of the Moguls has ever reared! The nearly related Pippul of India, or Bo-tree (_Ficus religiosa_), which differs from the banyan (_F. indica_) by sending down no roots from its branches, is reverenced by the Buddhists as the sacred plant, under whose shade Gautma, the founder of their religion, reclined when he underwent his divine transfiguration. Its heart-shaped leaves, which, like those of the aspen, appear in the profoundest calm to be ever in motion, are supposed to tremble in recollection of that mysterious scene. The sacred Pippul at Anarajapoora, the fallen capital of the ancient kings of Ceylon, is probably the oldest _historical tree_ in the world; as it was planted 288 years before Christ, and hence is now 2,150 years old. The enormous age of the baobabs of Senegal, and of the wondrous Wellingtonias of California, can only be conjectured; but the antiquity of the Bo-tree is matter of record, as its preservation has been an object of solicitude to successive dynasties; and the story of its fortunes has been preserved in a series of continuous chronicles amongst the most authentic that have been handed down by mankind. [Illustration: THE SACRED BO-TREE OF ANARAJAPOORA.]