effected in the rainy season
in this country. In half a year a new garden might be made to look like
a garden of half a century. Or an old and ill-arranged plantation might
thus be speedily re-adjusted to the taste of the owner. The main object
is to secure a good ball of earth round the root, and the main
difficulty is to raise the tree and remove it. Many most ingenious
machines for raising a tree from the ground, and trucks for removing it,
have been lately invented by scientific gardeners in England. A
Scotchman, Mr. McGlashen, has been amongst the most successful of late
transplanters. He exhibited one of his machines at Paris to the present
Emperor of the French, and lifted with it a fir tree thirty feet high.
The French ruler lavished the warmest commendations on the ingenious
artist and purchased his apparatus at a large price.[122]

Bengal is enriched with a boundless variety of noble trees admirably
suited to parks and pleasure grounds. These should be scattered about a
spacious compound with a spirited and graceful irregularity, and so
disposed with reference to the dwelling as in some degree to vary the
view of it, and occasionally to conceal it from the visitor driving up
the winding road from the outer gate to the portico. The trees, I must
repeat, should be so divided as to give them a free growth and admit
sufficient light and air beneath them to allow the grass to flourish.
Grassless ground under park trees has a look of barrenness, discomfort
and neglect, and is out of keeping with the general character of the
scene.

The Banyan (_Ficus Indica or Bengaliensis_)--

The Indian tree, whose branches downward bent,
Take root again, a boundless canopy--

and the Peepul or Pippul (_Ficus Religiosa_) are amongst the finest
trees in this country--or perhaps in the world--and on a very spacious
pleasure ground or park they would present truly magnificent aspects.
Colonel Sykes alludes to a Banyan at the village of Nikow in Poonah with
68 stems descending from and supporting the branches. This tree is said
to be capable of affording shelter to 20,000 men. It is a tree of this
sort which Milton so well describes.

The fig tree, not that kind for fruit renowned,
But such as at this day, to Indians known
In Malabar or Deccan, spreads her arms
Branching so broad and long, a pillared shade,
High over arched, and echoing walks between
There oft the Indian herdsman, shunning heat,