MEANING OF SPECIES 133 



individual plant, but of the kind, and are thus able to 

 distinguish the different kinds of plants. 



Thus we can distinguish easily and at a glance, the 

 Palmyra-palm with its dark-coloured unbranched stem 

 and crown of broad fan-like leaves with ribs and cuts 

 radiating from the base where the stalk is attached, from 

 the Coco-nut whose stem is also unbranched, and marked 

 also with rings across it, but whose leaves are much 

 larger and made up of a number of segments (leaflets) 

 attached to a central stalk, and each folded down- 

 wards along its middle. The common Date-palm 

 again, we distinguish easily from the Coco-nut, because 

 of its smaller leaves, and their leaflets, arranged as 

 in the Coco-nut-palm, but folded along their middle 

 line upwards instead of downwards. 



The Peepul again, has a much branched stem covered 

 with a fairly smooth grey bark (marked at intervals 

 of a few inches by lines running round the axis) and 

 small undivided leaves which have a long acuminate 

 point, a shiny surface, and long flexible stalks. The 

 Banyan, on the other hand, while resembling the 

 Peepul in being branched, though more widely so, 

 and in its grey -coloured bark, is different in having 

 roots that hang down from the branches and leaves 

 with rather thick stalks, thick blades, blunt ends and 

 a smooth not shiny surface. 



Every kind of plant has its own kind of leaf- 

 however much the general shape of the plants may 

 differ. 



And if we put a Palmyra fruit in the ground and 

 water it, we know that we may get from it eventually 

 a Palmyra-palm, never anything else. If we sow 



