12 ACCOUNT OF INDIA BY STRABO ing minutely the country of Mousikanos, which he says is the most southerly part of India, relates that there are some large trees [the banyan] the branches of which extend to the length even of twelve cubits. They then grow downwards, as though bent (by force), till they touch the earth, where they penetrate and take root like layers. They next shoot upwards and form a trunk. They again grow as we have described, bend- ing downwards, and implanting one layer after another, and in the above order, so that one tree forms a long shady roof, like a tent supported by many pillars. In speaking of the size of the trees, he says their trunks could scarcely be clasped by five men. Aristoboulos also, where he mentions the Akesines (Chinab) and its confluence with the Hyarotis (Ravi), speaks of trees with their boughs bent downwards and of a size so great that fifty horsemen, or, according to Onesikritos, four hundred horsemen, might take shelter at mid-day beneath the shade of a single tree. Aristoboulos mentions another tree, not large, bear- ing great pods, like the bean, ten fingers in length, full of honey, and says that those who eat this fruit do not easily escape alive. But the accounts of all these writ- ers about the size of the trees have been outdone by those who assert that there has been seen, beyond the Hyarotis (Ravi), a tree which casts a shade at noon of five stadia (about 3000 feet). Aristoboulos says of the wool-bearing trees, that the flower pod contains a kernel, which is taken out, and the remainder is carded like wool.
