Ban·yan n.  Bot. A tree of the same genus as the common fig, and called the Indian fig (Ficus Indica), whose branches send shoots to the ground, which take root and become additional trunks, until it may be the tree covers some acres of ground and is able to shelter thousands of men.
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 Bo tree Bot. The peepul tree; esp., the very ancient tree standing at Anurajahpoora in Ceylon, grown from a slip of the tree under which Gautama is said to have received the heavenly light and so to have become Buddha.
    The sacred bo tree of the Buddhists (Ficus religiosa), which is planted close to every temple, and attracts almost as much veneration as the status of the god himself.  . . . It differs from the banyan (Ficus Indica) by sending down no roots from its branches.   --Tennent.
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 Fi·cus n.  A genus of trees or shrubs, one species of which (F. Carica) produces the figs of commerce; the fig tree.
 Note: ☞ Ficus Indica is the banyan tree; F. religiosa, the peepul tree; F. elastica, the India-rubber tree.
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