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With the consent of
"The Outdoor Circle" we feature its information.
The Outdoor Circle is a non-profit organization
founded in Hawaii in 1912 to preserve the
natural beauty of the islands.
The considerable achievements of its volunteer
members
of the years since have helped make Hawaii
one of the
most loveliest places in the world in which
to live.
The organization's most significant
accomplishments include an instrumental
role in establishing legislation
in 1927 banning billboards in Hawaii,
the planting of tens of thousands of shade
and ornamental trees along
streets and avenues and in public places
in the islands, the initiation of youth
environmental education programs,
and the continued protection of
Hawaii's great number of rare
and unusual trees.
Indian Banyan Tree
Honolulu, O'ahu.
INDIAN BANYAN TREE.
From the primeval forests that once blanketed
India,
the earliest people there evolved a concept
of the world
as being a great cosmic tree.
The roots of the cosmic tree rose from the
waters below,
its trunk separated earth from heaven
and its all-enveloping
branches bore all things, including man.
Sometimes the cosmic tree is represented as
growing upside down
with its roots toward heaven and its branches
descending to earth.
To Hindus the giant Banyan became one
of the many
symbols of the Cosmic Tree of Life.
Lahaina, Maui
Chinese Banayan Tree.
Actress Mary Boland was among the first who
planted
Chinese Banyans in this avenue of forty-five
trees in 1933.
In the following year President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt,
Hawai’i’s Princess Kawananakoa and England’s
King George V
added their commemorative trees. In 1935 aviatrix
Amelia Earhart
and George Herman “Babe” Ruth joined lengthening
list of
notables whose names may be seen on well-maintained
labels at the bases of the specimens they
planted.
The last tree planting was by Senator Richard
Nixon in 1962.
The avenue may be unique in The United States.
Banyan Drive is exceptional for the
erotic beauty created
by the tunnel-like mass of deep green foliage,
the curtains of aerial roots and the fern-decked
branches
supporting the half-mile continuous canopy.
The Chinese Banyan, or more correctly,
Fig, is native to the widespread area from
India and southeast Asia,
to Australia and north to the Ryukyu Islands
of Japan.
It has become naturalized in Hawai’i and is
one of the
most common trees encountered.
Due to its very large size at maturity, the
Chinese Fig
is best used for park and avenue plantings.
Chinese Banyan Tree
in Hilo, Big Island.
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