gymnospermous, a. Bot.
(dʒɪmnəˈspɜːməs)
[f. mod.L. gymnosperm-us (see prec.) + -ous.]
Naked-seeded; applied to those plants, e.g. conifers, in which the seeds are not provided with a seed-vessel; belonging to the class Gymnospermæ.
| 1727 in Bailey vol. II. 1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. ii. v. (1765) 84 Such as have irregular Corollæ, and the Fruit gymnospermous. 1880 Gray Struct. Bot. vi. §7. 268 Gymnospermous..plants are so named because the ovules..are fertilized by direct application of the pollen. |
So gymnoˈspermal (Cent. Dict.), gymnoˈspermic (Syd. Soc. Lex. 1886) adjs., in the same sense. gymnoˈspermy, the attribute of being gymnospermous.
| 1890 Garnsey Sachs' Hist. Bot. i. iii. 142 Thus one of the most remarkable facts in vegetation, the gymnospermy of the Conifers and Cycads, was for the first time established [by Robert Brown, 1825]. |