Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Banyan \Ban"yan\, n. [See {Banian}.] (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.

Bo tree \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.

Ficus \Fi"cus\, n. [L., a fig.]
   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.