"early philosophers and naturalists used (fill in the blank) characteristics to classify living things."

Perhaps the answer is "physical characteristics". I am simply making an educated guess, however I do know early philosophers classified organisms into two groups, Plants and Animals, and identified them based on physical characteristics. 

Tamarind can be grown on homesteads, plantations, and wasteland or as a forest tree. methods of propagating tamarind there are two methods of propagating tamarind trees: seed propagation and vegetative propagation. seed propagation: it involves the collection, preparation and direct planting of the seed.answer from google full credit to google.