Verse 1.48 [Clumps, thickets and grasses. &c.]

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:

गुच्छगुल्मं तु विविधं तथैव तृणजातयः ।
बीजकाण्डरुहाण्येव प्रताना वल्ल्य एव च ॥ ४८ ॥

gucchagulmaṃ tu vividhaṃ tathaiva tṛṇajātayaḥ |
bījakāṇḍaruhāṇyeva pratānā vallya eva ca || 48 ||

The various kinds op clumps and thickets, and the other species of grass, as also low-spreading tendrils and creepers—all these grow out of seeds and slips.—(48)

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

‘Clumps and Thickets’—is the name given to the cluster of those shoots that grow together in large numbers, having one or several roots, and do not attain any considerable height; e.g., Copses and the like. Or ‘guccha’ ‘Clump’ and ‘gulma’ ‘thicket’ may be taken as two different things; the difference between the two being that, while one bears flowers, the other is flowerless.—Other ‘species of grass—e. g., kuśa, śādbala, śaṅkhapuṣpī and so forth.—Lowspreading tendrils—the long shoots of grass spreading on the ground.—‘Creepers’—are those shoots that grow out of the earth and clinging round a tree or some other object, rise upwards.—All these, like trees, ‘grow out of seeds and slips’—(48)

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

Burnell represents Medhātithi to explain ‘guccha-gulma’ as ‘one root and many roots’. This is not fair. What Medhātithi says is that the names ‘guccha-gulma’ are applied to clusters of short-growing creepers which may have one root or several roots.’ Kullūka defines ‘guccha’ as the single shoot springing from the root and having no boughs, and ‘gulma’ as a clump of shoots coming up from one root According to Medhātithi the difference between the two consists in the fact that while the former has flowers, the latter has none.