GLOSSARY OF BOTANICAL TERMS 



29 



set with minute dotlike projecting 

 appendages. 



Pungent: Tipped with a hard, rigid, 

 prickly point, as a pine needle. 



Pustulate: Beset with pimplelike or 

 blisterlike, elevated and sharply de- 

 fined areas (pustules). 



Pustule: A pimplelike or blisterlike 

 area, raised above the surrounding 

 surface and sharply circumscribed. 

 A pustule may be pathological as 

 the pustules (blisters or cankers) 

 on the stem of a white pine infested 

 with blister rust, or may be normal 

 and morphological as the pustulate 

 glands at the base of a peach or 

 plum leaf. 



Putamen (pi. -mina) : The hard stone 

 or pit (endocarp) of a drupe. The 

 pits of cherries, peaches, plums, and 

 the like are putamina and, anatomi- 

 cally, are inner layers of the coat 

 (pericarp) of the fruit rather than 

 belonging to the seed itself. 



Pyriform: Pear shaped. 



Pyxidium: Same as pyxis. 



Pyxis: A capsule or pod which opens 

 horizontally (circumscissile dehis- 

 cence), the top of the pod falling 

 off as a lid to permit seed dissemi- 

 nation. (Fig. 58.) A diminutive 

 pyx (box or casket of a convention- 

 al shape) . The fruits of the Brazil 

 nut, henbane, plan- 

 tain, and portulacas, 

 for example, are 

 pyxes. 



Q. v.: To which refer 

 (Latin, quid vide), 

 an abbreviation used 

 in cross references. 



Quadrat : A rectangu- 

 lar, usually square 

 sample plot used in 

 ecological and other 

 biological studies ; es- 

 pecially such a plot 

 containing 1 square 

 meter. (A larger sample plot is 

 often termed a major quadrat.) 



Quinquef oliolate : Having five leaflets 

 (Latin, quinque, five + foliolum, 

 leaflet), as the leaves of cinquefoils 

 (Potentilla spp.). 



Race: A breed or strain, especially if 

 of a domesticated species and pro- 

 duced by artificial selection ; a taxo- 

 nomic group lower and less constant 

 than a species, as a white-flowered 

 race of a normally blue-flowered 

 larkspur species. Partly synony- 

 mous with subspecies and variety 

 but typically of lesser importance. 



Raceme: A simple, elongated, indeter- 

 minate flower cluster, the rachis 

 bearing a series of 1-flowered pedi- 



Figure 58. — A 

 pyxis 



eels, the lower flowers blossoming 

 earlier than the upper flowers (cen- 

 tripetal). (Fig. 59.) 



Racemose: Having the characteristics 

 of a raceme; racemelike; raceme 

 bearing. 



Rachilla: The axis of 

 a spikelet, the pro- 

 longation of the 

 pedicel. 



Rachis: The axis of a 

 spike, raceme, or 

 branch of a panicle. 



Radicle: The rudimen- 

 tary stem of the 

 plant embryo in a 

 seed; the basal tip 

 of the lower, free 

 portion turns down- 

 ward into the earth 

 (exhibits geotro- 

 pism ) a n d becomes 

 the root of the seed- 

 ling plant, while the 

 upper extremity ex- 

 hibits heliotropism, 

 pushing the cotyle- 

 dons into the light. 



Raphe (pronounced 

 ray'-fee; Greek, 

 rhaphe, a seam) : A 

 seamlike ridge or 

 furrow (as on the 

 human tongue), es- 

 pecially (1) the ridge connecting 

 the hilum and chalaza of an ana- 

 tropous or amphitropous ovule, 

 marking the fusion of the stalk 

 (adnate funicle) and body of the 

 inverted ovule, adjoining the point 

 of attachment on the placenta, and 

 (2) a prominent medial line or 

 suture, often showing the union of 

 two symmetrical halves of an organ 

 or part, as on the pod of a pea or 

 loco, a sporocarp of pepperwort 

 (Marsilea), a diatom valve, or a 

 seed of pitcherplant (Sarracenia). 

 Often spelled rhaphe. 



Ray: In composites (as in daisies) one 

 of the marginal, usually colored and 

 petallike flowers which are called 

 "ligules" by some authors. In 

 umbellifers, a branch of an umbel. 

 (Fig. 74, c.) 



Receptacle: The axis or support of a 

 flower or flower head ; the somewhat 

 enlarged end of the flower stalk 

 upon which numerous flowers or the 

 organs of a flower are borne. Often 

 called torus. 



Reflexed: Bent abruptly backward. 



Reniform: Kidney shaped. 



Repand: Gently wavy or fluted mar- 

 gined. Same as undulate. Uneven, 



Figure 59. — A 

 raceme, as in 

 pyrola, o r. 

 shinleaf (Py- 

 rola) 



