nectary
(ˈnɛktərɪ)
[f. nectar, or ad. mod.L. nectarium: see -ary.]
† 1. fig. ? A nectareous fluid. Obs. rare—1.
| 1598 F. Rous Thule T 3, Her folded eyes, Drowning themselues in their owne Nectaries. |
2. Bot. The organ or part of a flower or plant which secretes honey.
| 1759 B. Stillingfleet Misc. Tracts Introd. (1762) 31 The part of the flower that contains honey is called The nectary. 1796 Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) I. 3 The tube of the blossom serves the purpose of a Nectary in many flowers, as in the Honey-suckle. 1811 A. T. Thomson Lond. Disp. (1818) 227 The corolla consists of six..petals, enclosing a tuberculated bristled nectary. 1856 R. A. Vaughan Mystics II. 324 Some pierced the nectaries of the flowers with their fine bills. 1874 Coues Birds N.W. 269 An arrangement which..facilitates the extraction of honey from the nectaries of flowers. |
3. Ent. A wart-like tube on the body of an aphis, from which ‘honey-dew’ is exuded.
| 1890 in Cent. Dict. 1898 Packard Text-bk. Entom. 365 Busgen..observed that on reaching the air the drops issuing from the ‘nectary’ or ‘honey’ tube stiffened almost instantly into a wax-like mass. |