File:A new family encyclopedia, or, Compendium of universal knowledge - comprehending a plain and practical view of those subjects most interesting to persons, in the ordinary professions of life - (14795131493).jpg

Identifier: newfamilyencyclo00good (find matches)
Title: A new family encyclopedia, or, Compendium of universal knowledge : comprehending a plain and practical view of those subjects most interesting to persons, in the ordinary professions of life : illustrated by numerous engravings
Year: 1831 (1830s)
Authors: Goodrich, Charles A. (Charles Augustus), 1790-1862
Subjects: Encyclopedias and dictionaries
Publisher: Philadelphia : (s.n.)
Contributing Library: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Federally funded with LSTA funds through the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners

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or hurdle todry in the sun. They are found to contain mucilage, sugar, and someoil. They are very nourishing; yet when eaten freely, they often pro-duce much inconvenience. They are used to make gargarisms againstdisorders of the throat and mouth : they are also applied externally tosoften and promote the maturation or suppuration of tumors, particu-larly when toasted and applied to swelled gums. BANIAN, or INDIAN FIG TREE. This tree deserves notice, notas a fruit tree, but from its being a sacred tree with the Hindoos in theEast Indies, from the vast size that it attains, and from the singularityof 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 thecourse of time, a single tree extends itself to a considerable grove. Thisremarkuble tree was known to the ancients. Strabo mentions that af-ter the branches have extended about twelve feet horizontally, they EXCYCLOPEDTA. 57 THE BANIAN TREK. RAISINS.
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THE BANIAN TREE,shoot down in the direction of the earth, and there take root themselves ;and when they have attained maturity, they propagate onward in thesame manner, till the whole becomes like a tent supported by manycolumns. Some specimens of the Indian fig-tree are mentioned as being of im-mense magnitude. One near Mangee, twenty miles to the westward ofPatna, in Bengal, spread over a diameter of 370 feet. The entire cir-cumference of the shadow at noon was 1116 feet, and it required 929feet to surround the fifty or sixty stems by which the tree was support-ed. Another covered an area of 1700 square yards ; and many of al-most equal dimensions are found in different parts of India and CochinChina, where the tree grows in the greatest perfection. RAISINS are grapes, prepared by suffering them to remain on thevine till they are perfectly ripe, and then drying them in the sun or inovens, to fit them for keeping, and for some medicinal or culinary pur-poses. There are various kinds

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