Banana plant West Begnal Land Reforms Act, S. 14K(a) In view of clause (p) of S. 2 of the Act, it will not be wrong to look to this definition in the Land Reforms Act, for guidance. This definition, it will be seen, substantially conforms to the dictionary meaning of the term ‘orchard’. According to the Oxford Dictionary, the modern connotation of ‘orchard’ is ‘an enclosure with fruit trees”, or “an enclosure for the cultivation of fruit trees”. Webster’s New World Dictionary, also, gives its meaning as “an area of land, generally enclosed, devoted to the cultivation of fruit trees, nut trees”. Thus, the existence of cultivated fruit trees on a compact area, is central to the connotation of ‘orchard’. The question before us, therefore, resolves into the issue, whether a banana plant is a ‘tree’ ? A ‘tree’ according to the Shorter Oxford Dictionary, is “a perennial plant having a self-supporting woody main stem of trunk (which usually develops wood branches at some distance from the ground), and growing to a considerable height”. Thus, for a plant to come within the connotation of ‘tree’, it must have two essential characteristics : (a) It must be ‘perennial’ and not seasonal ; and (b) its main stem must be ‘woody’ and not herbacious or pulpy. A banana plant lacks both these characteristics. It is not a perennial plant, but is more in the nature of a seasonal crop lasting for one or one and a quarter years. Once the plant yields fruit, it becomes useless and does not yield any further fruit. Further, its seem is not ‘woody’ but ‘fleshy’ or ‘herbacious’. Banana plant, according to Webster’s Dictionary, is a “tree-like perennial herb of the genus Musa plant with soft herbaceous stalk”. Oxford Dictionary, no doubt, loosely describes it as a ‘fruit tree’ belonging to the genus Musa sapientum, but it also concedes that it has no ‘woody’ stem or trunk but only a soft herbaceous stalk. The Webster’s Dictionary appears to be more correct when it uses the word ‘tree-like’ for a banana plant. (Mir Fakir Mohd. V. State of W.B., (1978) 2 SCC 26 (38)