[Warton points out that Milton must have had in view a description of the Banyan-tree in Gerard's Herbal under the heading "of the arched Indian fig-tree.">[
1672.—"Eastward of Surat two Courses, i.e. a League, we pitched our Tent under a Tree that besides its Leafs, the Branches bear its own Roots, therefore called by the Portugals, Arbor de Raiz; For the Adoration the Banyans pay it, the Banyan-Tree."—Fryer, 105.
1691.—"About a (Dutch) mile from Gamron ... stands a tree, heretofore described by Mandelslo and others.... Beside this tree is an idol temple where the Banyans do their worship."—Valentijn, v. 267-8.
1717.—
"The fair descendants of thy sacred bed
Wide-branching o'er the Western World shall spread,
Like the fam'd Banian Tree, whose pliant shoot
To earthward bending of itself takes root,
Till like their mother plant ten thousand stand
In verdant arches on the fertile land;