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Properties, Structure & Functions of Plant in Jaina Agamic Works 31
years, have a thick tough stem1 or trunk, covered with a layer of cork. A tree is a woody stemmed perennial that grows and so has a main stem or trunk curved, straight, long, etc.2 It is a woody perennial with several stems of roughly equal size above the ground line.
The Leaf and Its Function
The Jainācāryas does not throw much light upon the structure and function of the leaf of plant except the following things. The leaf may be endowed with Kṣira (a waxy cutin ?) or may not be so (niḥkṣiram) and may have fine veins (gūḍhasiram) and their invisible joints (parvas) in between two half parts of it", i. e. the upper and lower "layers of the leaf epidermis filled with thin walled cells, called mesophyll, which are full of choloroplast."4
Each leaf is a specialized nutritive organ whose function is to carry on photosynthesis.5 Leaves are generally broad and flat to present a maximum surface sunlight.
Leaves originate a succession of lateral outgrowths called primordia (Kisalay) from the apical meristem at the tip of the stem (agra). Each
Yatra mūlaskandhakandaśakhāsu dṛṣyate sphuṭam /
Tvaca Kāṇiyasi Kāṣṭhat sa tvak pratyekajivika (96) Lokaprakāśa. 5.40.
1.
2. Uttaradhyayana Sutra, 36.94.
Guluea (shrubs). It brings forth twigs or stems instead of stalks. e. g. Navamalika Jasminum sambac, Kanavira, etc.
3. "Güḍhachiragam pattam sacchiram jam ca hoti nicchiram jani pi ya panaṭṭhasamdhim anamtajīvā viyānāhi /
4.
5.
6.
Sakṣiram vāpi niḥkṣiram patram Gudhaśiram ca yat / Alaksyamānapatrāddhadvayasandhi ca yadbhavet /
Biology, p. 126. C. A. Ville
Bhagavati Sūtra, 7. 3. 275.
Sütrakṛtānga II, 3. 47.
Pannavana, 54.7 85.
Jain Education International
Lokaprakāśa, 5. 84.
Mulattae......pavalattae pattattãe pupphattae
phalattae biyattae vuṭṭamti, Pannavana, 40 patta patteyajiviya//
Bija ca yoņibhūte vyukramati saiva Janturaparo va Mūlasya Yasca Kartā sāleva tatprathama-patrasta//
Lokaprakāśa 5. 61.
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