Note 1 — CHAP. III.
Reading edition
: Ficus Indica.
2: I do not remember to have seen the following passage from Pliny referred to as the original of Milton's description of this marvellous tree:—
"Ipsa se serens, vastis diffunditur ramis: quorum imi adeo in terram curvantur, ut annuo spatio infigantur, novamque sibi propaginem faciant circa parentem in orbem. Intra septem eam æstivant pastores, opacam pariter et munitam vallo arboris, decora specie subter intuenti, proculve, fornicato arbore. Foliorum latitudo peltæ effigiem Amazonicæ habet," &c.—PLINY, 1. xii. c. 11.
"The fig-tree—not that kind for fruit renowned, But such as at this day to Indians known, In Malabar or Dekkan spreads her arms, Branching so broad and long, that on the ground The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow About the mother tree: a pillar'd shade High over arched and echoing walks between. There oft the Indian herdsman, shunning heat, Shelters in cool and tends his pasturing flocks At loop-holes cut through thickest shade. These leaves They gathered; broad as Amazonian targe: And with what skill they had, together sewed To gird their waist," &c.
Par. Lost, ix. 1100.
Pliny's description is borrowed, with some embellishments, from THEOPHRASTUS de. Nat. Plant. l. i. 7. iv. 4.