72 GENERAL BOTANY 



no time to make strong woody shoots and are almost 

 always small plants, such as the ordinary food grains, 

 Paddy, Cholam, Wheat, and Barley, Tobacco and the 

 many ^flowering annuals, that are sown every cold 

 season in our gardens. 



Others live on for many years and produce seeds 

 every year, though usually not in their first season* 

 These are termed perennials. 



There are several kinds of perennial plants. First 

 are. those which have a thick main axis (stem) and a 

 crown of large leaves. This is the Palm type too 

 well known in the tropics to need description. Not only 

 Palms but Cycads and Tree-ferns are of this character. 



Then there are what we ordinarily call trees 

 woody plants with a thick stem that divides or 

 branches at a certain height above the ground, and 

 bear a very great number of much smaller leaves 

 such as the Mango, Banyan, and Teak. 



Those which have no main stem, but several woody 

 stems springing from the ground, like the Bamboo, 

 Ixora, Pomegranate, Rose are termed shrubs. In some 

 of these the stems are weak, and support themselves 

 by straggling over other plants, as ZIZYPHUS, LANTANA, 

 RUBUS. These pass gradually into the fourth group 

 of plants, which like the Vine, BOUGAINVILLAEA 

 BAUHINIA, THUNBERGIA, the Pea and others climb 

 up the trunks of trees, or the surface of rocks, 

 supporting themselves by thorns, clinging roots or 

 special clasping organs called tendrils. This we may 

 call the vine or liane or climbing group. 



A fifth group of perennial plants consists of those 

 which have no woody parts, but are on the contrary 



