pin-eyed, a.
(ˈpɪnˌaɪd)
[f. pin n.1 + eyed ppl. a.]
Having an ‘eye’ with a ‘pin’; applied by florists to the long styled form of a flower (esp. Primula), which shows the stigma, resembling a pin's head, at the top of the corolla-tube (opp. to thrum-eyed or rose-eyed, applied to the short-styled form, which shows the anthers at the top).
| 1810 Crabbe Borough viii, This is no shaded, run-off, pin-eyed thing, A king of flowers. 1861 Darwin in Jrnl. Linn. Soc. VI. 77 Florists who cultivate the Polyanthus and Auricula..call those which display the globular stigma at the mouth of the corolla ‘pin headed’ or ‘pin-eyed’. 1877 ― in Life & Lett. (1887) III. 295 Some plants yield nothing but pin-eyed flowers in which the style..is long. |