THE PARK. 



again. " Well done, my friend !" exclaimed he in great 

 delight, when I showed him for the fourth time the sketch 

 and description, " that is the proper way to question 

 the plants, let us see what answers they have made." 



Seeds of gram, mung, and tamarind were, in grow- 

 ing, split up into tivo halves ; and the growing points 

 had taken opposite directions of the same axis upward 

 and downward, the part which had taken the upward 

 direction becoming the young stem supporting the two 

 true leaves, the downward part which assumed a 

 tapering form becoming the root. Seeds of paddy 

 and barley were not split up into two halves, and there 

 was no downward prolongation of the growing point, 

 so that, instead of there being one primary root of a 

 tapering form, there were many of them, all pushed 

 out from the base of the stem. Svamiji explained to me 

 that a large number of flower-bearing plants, among 

 which were included the ashwathWa^ the banyan, the 

 mango, and a great many other common and uncom- 

 mon treeSj shrubs and herbs belonged to the former, 

 or, two-seed-leaf kind ; on the other hand, a large number 

 of plants including various species of palms belonged 

 to the latter, or, one-seed-leaf kind* 



I was now perhaps convinced, Svamiji remarked, 

 that the ashwathwa and banyan differed somewhat in 

 their fundamental plan of construction from the palmyra, 

 the date, and the cocoanut palm. As a further con- 

 firmation of the fact of this difference, he made a small 

 cut on the stem of a banyan causing it to bleed ; but 



