‖ cryptogamia Bot.
(krɪptəʊˈgæmɪə)
[mod.L. Cryptogamia (Linn. 1735), n. fem., f. Gr. κρυπτός hidden, concealed + γάµος wedding, wedlock + -ία suffix of state: cf. Gr. ἀγαµία unmarried condition, celibacy; in F. cryptogamie.
Like the names of other Linnæan classes and orders, it is a singular noun, and was always so treated in the 18th c.; but in the 19th c., prob. by unthinking confusion with classes and orders of the animal kingdom (e.g. Vertebrata, Mammalia, Carnivora) which are adjs. neuter plural, it has been (first apparently by persons not botanists, and afterwards by some botanists also) misused as a noun plural = cryptogams.]
A large division of the vegetable kingdom, being the last class in the Linnæan Sexual system, and comprising those plants which have no stamens or pistils, and therefore no proper flowers; including Ferns, Mosses, Algæ, Lichens, and Fungi.
| [1735 Linnæus Syst. Nat. (1740) 74 Cryptogamia vegetabilia sæpe suspecta includit. 1737 ― Gen. Plant. (1742) 500 Classes xxiv Cryptogamia. Cryptogamia continet Vegetabilia, quorum Fructificationes visui nostro sese subtrahunt. Ordines hujus classis sex constituo.] 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp., Cryptogamia, in botany, a class of plants whose flowers are either wholly invisible, or scarce discernable by the eye. 1794 Martyn Rousseau's Bot. ix. 96 That class is called cryptogamia, from the circumstance of the fructification being concealed, or not obvious. 1861 H. Macmillan Footnotes fr. Nat. 3 The second great division of the vegetable kingdom, to which the name of cryptogamia has been given. |
¶ Erroneously treated as a plural = Cryptogams.
| 1813 Sir H. Davy Agric. Chem. (1814) 72 Even in the cryptogamia..as in the more perfect plants. 1856 Miss Mulock J. Halifax (ed. 17) 337 In order to study the cryptogamia. 1885 Annandale Imperial Dict., The Cryptogamia are divided into cellular and vascular cryptogams. |
Hence cryptoˈgamian a. (1828 in Webster), cryptoˈgamic a. (also as n.), cryptoˈgamical a., of or pertaining to the class Cryptogamia or to cryptogams; crypˈtogamist, a botanist who specially studies cryptogams; crypˈtogamous a., of the nature of a cryptogam; crypˈtogamy, cryptogamic condition or relations.
| 1805 Edin. Rev. VI. 134 Among these last [plants] we notice several cryptogamics. 1830 Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 307 The subject of Cryptogamic botany. 1801 Med. Jrnl. V. 370 A country rich in cryptogamical plants. 1830 Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 307 Those great cryptogamists whose lives have been devoted to the study of the subject. 1829 Jesse Jrnl. Nat. 374 A cryptogamous plant, which I believe to be lichen fascicularis. 1870 Bentley Bot. 10 Flowerless or Cryptogamous plants. 1796 Pennant Hist. Whiteford & Holywell (T.), The picturesque dingle Nant-y-bi abounds with what the botanists name the cryptogamous plants. The idea of cryptogamy inspired Timæus with ideas of loves of other kind. |