GLOSSARY OF TECHNICAL TERMS 
Hilum; the scar of the seed, its place of attach- 
ment. 
Hirsute; with stiff, beard-like hairs. 
Hispid; with short stiff, bristle-like hairs. 
Homogamous; a head containing flowers of one 
kind only. - 
Hooded; hood-like. 
Hooked; bristles or other appendages curved at 
the apex. 
Horny; horn-like in texture. 
Hyaline; transparent or nearly so. 
Hybrid; a cross between two allied species. 
Hypogynous; inserted under the pistil. 
Imbricate; overlapping .one another. 
Imperfeot; flowers in which either the stamens 
or pistils are wanting. 
Inequilateral; unequal sided. 
Incised; deeply and irregularly cut. 
Included; enclosed, not exserted. 
Incomplete; a flower in which the calyx or 
corolla is wanting. 
Indefinite; very numerous. - 
Indehiscent; not splitting open. 
Indigenous, native to a country, as opposed to 
introduced. 
Indumentum; any hairy or scaly covering. 
Indusium; the shield-like body covering the 
fruit-dots in ferns. 
Inferior; below some other organ; specifically 
the ovary is said to be inferior when the 
floral organs grow from or near its summit. 
Inflated; swollen and bladder-like. 
Inflexed; bent inward. 
Inflorescence; the arrangement of the flowers 
on the plant. 
Inserted; placed on or joined to. 
Internode; the part of a stem between two 
nodes. 
Interpetiolar; between the petioles. 
Introrse; turned or facing inward. 
Involucre; a whorl or set of bracts around a 
flower, or an inflorescence. 
Involute; rolled inward from the edges. 
Irregular; wanting in regularity, asymmetric. 
Jointed; 
parts. 
separate or separable into distinct 
Keel; a projecting ridge on a surface, like the 
keel of a boat; the two anterior petals of 
a papilionaceous corolla. 
Keeled; furnished with a keel or sharp longi- 
tudinal ridge. 
Kidney-shaped; resembling the outline of a 
kidney. 
Labellum; the odd, usually enlarged petal in 
the orchids and some other flowers. 
Lacerate; with margin appearing as if torn. 
Laciniate; slashed; cut into deep narrow lobes. 
Lamina; the expanded part or blade of a leaf. 
Lanate; woolly, clothed with long and short 
hairs. 
Lanceolate; lance-shaped. 
Latex; the milky juice of plants. 
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Lax; loose in arrangement, the opposite of 
crowded. 
Leaflet; one of the divisions or blades of a 
compound leaf. 
Leathery; tough and leather-like; coriaceous. 
Legume; a simple pod which dehisces in two 
pieces, like that of the bean. 
Lepidote; covered with small scales. 
Ligule; the strap-shaped corolla in many Com- 
positae; the thin appendage at the apex’ 
of the leaf-sheaths of most grasses. 
Limb; the border of a corolla, 
Linear; narrow, many times as long as broad, 
the margins parallel. 
Lip; the principal lobes of a bilabiate corolla 
or calyx of irregular flowers. 
Lobe; any projection or division of a leaf or 
other organ. 
Loculicidal; capsules opening by 
through the back of each cell. 
splitting 
Macrospore; the large spore when there are two 
kinds. 
Male; flowers having stamens but no pistil. 
Margin; the edge of a flattened body. 
Median; belonging to the middle. 
Membranaceous; thin and soft, of the texture 
of membrane. 
Merous; part; used with numbers to denote the 
number of parts, as trimerous or 3-merous, 
with 3 parts, ete. 3 
Microspore; the smaller kind of spore when 
there are two kinds. 
Midrib; the middle or main rib of a leaf, 
Monocotyledonous; with only one cotyledon. 
Monoecious; male and female flowers borne on 
the same plant. 
Mucronate; tipped with an abrupt short pvint. 
Muricate; beset with short and hard or prickly 
points. 
Naked; wanting some usual covering. 
Naturalized; introduced from a foreign country, 
and established. 
Nerve; a name for the ribs or veins of leaves. 
Netted-veined; furnished with branching veins 
forming network. 
Nodding; bending so that the summit hangs 
downward. 
Node; the joints of a stem, or the part bearing 
the leaves or branches. 
Nut; a hard, usually 1-seeded, indehiscent fruit. 
Nutlet; a little nut. 
Obcordate; inversely cordate, the notch apical. 
Oblanceolate; the reverse of lanceolate, the 
broader end toward the top. 
Oblique; unequal-sided; slanting. 
Oblong; from two to four times as long as 
broad. 
Obovate; a flat inversely ovate body, the broad 
end upward. 
Obovoid; a solid body obovate in outline. 
Obsolete; wanting or rudimentary. 
Obtuse; blunt or round at the end. 
