Note 1 — CHAP. III
Reading edition
: "They sacrifice upon the tops of mountains, and burn incense under oaks, and poplars, and elms, because the shadow thereof is good."—Hosea, iv. 13.
2: The Bo-tree (Ficus religiosa) is the "pippul" of India. It differs from the Banyan (F. indica), by sending down no roots from its branches. Its heart-shaped leaves, with long attenuated points, are attached to the stem by so slender a stalk, that they appear in the profoundest calm to be ever in motion, and thus, like the leaves of the aspen, which, from the tradition that the cross was made of that wood, the Syrians believe to tremble in recollection of the events of the crucifixion, those of the Bo-tree are supposed by the Buddhists to exhibit a tremulous veneration, associated with the sacred scene of which they were the witnesses.
3: Previous Buddhas had each his Bo-tree or Buddha-tree. The pippul had been before assumed by the first recorded Buddha; others had the iron-tree, the champac, the nipa, &c.—Mahawanso, TURNOUR'S Introd. p. xxxii.