Pliny: Natural History, Vol. IV

We will now describe those trees that the victory of Alexander the Great admired once that part of the world was opened up.

XI. The fig-tree there is extraordinary in its fruit, always planting itself; it spreads with vast branches, the lowest of which bend down to the earth so much that in the space of a year they take root and make for themselves a new offspring around the parent, in a kind of topiary work. A banyan tree, spreading through its own branches which root in the soil. Inside this bower the shepherds spend the summer, for it is shady and fortified by the fence of the tree, presenting a beautiful appearance to one looking at it from below or from a distance with its vaulted circumference. Its upper branches shoot up into the heights with a woody multitude from the vast body of the mother, so that many of them enclose a circle of 60 paces, and cover two stades in shade. The width of the leaves has the shape of an Amazonian shield; for this reason, they cover the fruit and prevent it from growing, and it is rare and does not exceed the size of a bean, but ripened by the sun through the leaves, it is very sweet in flavor and worthy of the marvel of the tree. It grows mostly around the river Acesines.

XII. There is another, with larger fruit and superior sweetness, on which the sages of India live. The leaf imitates the wings of birds, with a length of three cubits and a width of two. It emits the fruit from the bark, admirable in the sweetness of its juice, such that one bunch satisfies four people. The tree's name

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