Glossary
Acaulescent: with stem so short that leaves appear to arise directly from root.
Achene: a small, dry, one-seeded indehiscent, seed-like fruit.
Acuminate: tapering gradually to a point.
Acute: with an abrupt point.
Adnate: growing together as the stamens with the petals, or the anthers with the filament.
Alternate: (leaves) not opposite but arising at different points on the stem. Stamens are alternate with petals when they are situated in the intervals.
Anther: the part of the stamen which contains the pollen.
Apical: pertaining to the top or apex.
Auriculate: with ear-like appendages at base.
Axial: pertaining to an axis.
Bilabiate: two-lipped.
Blade: the expanded portion of a leaf.
Bract: a modified and usually small leaf at the base of a flower or flower-cluster. In the latter case it is usually associated with others.
Bracteolate: furnished with small bracts.
Cæspitose: growing in tufts.
Calyx: the outer whorl of floral leaves forming usually a green cup.
Campanulate: bell-shaped.
Canescent: greyish-white, due usually to fine hairs.
Capillary: hair-like.
Capitate: arranged in a head; knob-like.
Capsule: a dry, dehiscent seed-vessel.
Carpel: a pistil-leaf. The pistil is regarded as being composed of one or more such carpels.
Catkin: the scaly, cylindrical flower-cluster of Willow, Birch, etc.
Caudate: with a tail-like appendage.
Caudex: the perennial rootstock of an otherwise annual plant.
Chartaceous: papery or parchment-like.
Ciliate: fringed with marginal hairs.
Cinereous: ashen or greyish.
Cleistogamic: (flowers) never opening as the late flowers of violets, etc.
Connate: united.
Cordate: heart-shaped.
Coriaceous: leathery.
Corm: a solid bulb.
Corymbose: with a flat-topped or convex flower-cluster, the flower-stalks of which arise at different points on the axis, and of which the outermost flowers are the oldest.
Crenate: with rounded teeth.
Crenulate: with small rounded teeth.
Cuneate: wedge-shaped.
Cuspidate: ending in a sharp, hard point.
Cyme: a flat-topped or convex flower-cluster, the flower-stalks of which arise at different points on the axis, and of which the corolla innermost flowers are the oldest.
Deciduous: subject to fall, as leaves of most trees and calyx and corolla of most flowers before the fruit forms.
Decumbent: (stems) reclining on the ground with summit tending to rise.
Decurrent: (leaves) with base prolonged below insertion and forming a sort of wing.
Deltoid: broadly triangular.
Dentate: toothed, usually with teeth projecting outwards.
Denticulate: with little, outwardly projecting teeth.
Diœcious: having staminate and pistillate flowers on separate plants.
Disc: the central part of a head as opposed to the ray, e. g., in the sun-flower. Also a fleshy expansion of the receptacle of the flower.
Drupe: a stone-fruit.
Drupelet: a small stone-fruit.
Elliptic: with the outline of an ellipse.
Entire: with the margin even and not toothed, lobed, or divided.
Erose: irregularly margined.
Fimbriate: fringed.
Floccose: with loose tufts of wool-like hairs.
Foliaceous: leaf-like.
Follicle: a fruit of one carpel (pistil-leaf) which splits only by one suture.
Fusiform: spindle-shaped.
Galea: a helmet-shaped body.
Glandular: with small prominences which appear to have a secreting function.
Glaucous: covered with a bluish or white bloom.
Globose: spherical.
Incised: sharply and irregularly cut into.
Indusium: the membrane covering the fruit-dots of ferns.
Inferior: (side of flower) the one away from the axis of the flower-cluster; (ovary) united with the calyx tube, the other floral parts apparently growing from its summit.
Inflorescence: the mode of arrangement of flowers on the stem; the flower-cluster.
Internode: the portion of the stem between the places where the leaves arise.
Involucre: a whorl of small leaves at the base of a flower or flower-cluster.
Keel: the lower petals of the peculiar corolla of the pea, etc., which are united in the form of the keel of a boat.
Laciniate: with deep, triangular, narrow lobes.
Lanate: woolly.
Lanceolate: narrow and tapering at each end.
Lateral: pertaining to the side.
Leaflet: one of the divisions of the blade of a compound leaf.
Linear: narrow and flat with the margins parallel.
Lyrate: lyre-shaped.
Monœcious: having the separate staminate and pistillate flowers on the same plant.
Mucronate: with a short, abrupt point.
Node: the point of the stem from which one or more leaves arise.
Oblanceolate: lance-shaped with the base tapering downwards.
Obtuse: blunt.
Orbicular: circular.
Ovate: egg-shaped (applied to flat bodies).
Ovoid: egg-shaped (applied to solids).
Palmate: (compound leaf) with the divisions so arranged that they radiate from the petiole-like the fingers of the hand.
Panicle: a branched, flower-cluster with the older flowers outermost.
Paniculate: with much branched open flower clusters.
Papillæ: minute, blunt projections.
Pappus: the bristles, awns, or hairs which crown the fruit of the Composites.
Parietal: (placentæ) attached to the wall of the ovary.
Peduncle: a flower-stalk.
Perennial: lasting from year to year.
Perfoliate: (leaves) having the basal part so extended and united as to make it appear as though the stem grew through them.
Perianth: the calyx and corolla collectively.
Petal: a corolla-leaf.
Petaloid: petal-like.
Petiole: the leaf-stalk.
Pinnæ: the primary divisions of a compound leaf.
Pinnate: compound with leaflets arranged along a common axis.
Pinnatifid: pinnately cleft.
Pinnules: secondary pinnæ.
Placentæ: the parts of the ovary to which the seeds are attached.
Plumose: feathery.
Pollen: the fertilising powder of the anther.
Polygamous: having both perfect and imperfect flowers.
Prostrate: lying flat on the ground.
Puberulent: covered with tiny almost imperceptible hairs.
Pulvini: cushions or pads.
Raceme: a flower-cluster in which the stalked flowers are arranged along an elongated axis.
Racemose: raceme-like.
Rachis: the axis.
Radical: arising from the root, or portion of the stem resembling the root.
Receptacle: the usually somewhat enlarged portion of the stem on which parts of a flower or of a flower-cluster are borne.
Reniform: kidney-shaped.
Repand: wavy-margined.
Reticulate: arranged like a network.
Revolute: rolled backward.
Rhizome: an underground stem; a rootstock.
Rhombic: having the shape of a four-sided figure with parallel and equal sides which may be either perpendicular or oblique to each other.
Rhomboid: of a somewhat rhombic shape.
Rotate: wheel-shaped.
Runcinate: coarsely cut into with the segments turned backward.
Sagittate: shaped like an arrow-head with the lobes turned downward.
Samara: a simple, indehiscent, winged fruit.
Saprophyte: a plant which grows on dead organic matter.
Scale: a minute, rudimentary leaf.
Scape: a leafless or nearly leafless flower-stalk arising from near the ground.
Scarious: dry, thin, membranous.
Scurf: minute scales on the epidermis (skin).
Sepals: the divisions of the calyx.
Serrate: with teeth pointing forwards.
Serrulate: with minute forward pointing teeth.
Sessile: (leaf) without any stalk.
Sheath: a tubular structure such as is formed by the lower part of the leaves of grasses, etc.
Silicle: a short and broad silique.
Silique: the elongated two-valved and usually dehiscent fruit of the Cress family. It is divided by a partition and the placentæ are parietal.
Sinuate: with a strongly wavy margin.
Sinus: the recess between the lobes of a leaf.
Sori: the fruit-dots of ferns.
Spadix: a fleshy spike as in the Araceæ.
Spathe: a large bract or pair of bracts enclosing a flower or an inflorescence.
Spatulate: spoon-shaped.
Spike: a flower-cluster in which the flowers are stalkless on an elongated axis.
Sporanges: the sacs containing the spores.
Spore: the reproductive body of ferns.
Sporophyll: leaf-like organ or receptacle containing spores.
Stamen: the organ of the flower which produces the pollen.
Staminodia: sterile stamens or structures which are developed in the place of stamens.
Stellate: star-shaped.
Stipe: the leaf-stalk of a fern.
Stipule: an appendage such as is found at the base of many leaf-stalks.
Stolon: a trailing and rooting shoot.
Striate: marked with slender, longitudinal stripes.
Strict: straight and upright.
Style: (of pistil) the elongated portion at top of ovary.
Subulate: awl-shaped.
Superior: (side of flower) the one next the axis of a flower-cluster;
(ovary) free from calyx tube.
Terete: cylindrical, circular in cross-section.
Ternate: in threes.
Tomentose: clothed with matted wool-like hairs.
Torulose: knobby; swollen at intervals.
Truncate: as if cut off at the top.
Tubercle: a small knob-like outgrowth.
Turbinate: top-shaped.
Umbel: an umbrella-like flower-cluster.
Undulate: wavy.
Valvate: (leaves in bud) meeting by the margins, not overlapping.
Verticillate: whorled.
Vexillum: the standard of the peculiar flower of pea, etc.
Villous: with long soft hairs.