‖ vasculum
(ˈvæskjʊləm)
Pl. -a, -ums.
[L., dim. of vās vessel.]
1. Bot. = Ascidium 2.
| 1832 Lindley Introd. Bot. 96 The singular form of leaf in Sarracenia and Nepenthes, which has been called Ascidium or Vasculum. 1859 Mayne Expos. Lex., Vasculum,..the cup which terminates the leaves of the Nepenthes; a vascule. |
2. A special kind of case used by botanists for carrying newly-collected specimens.
Usually made of tin in the form of a flattened cylinder, with a lid on one side opening lengthways.
| 1782 J. Lightfoot Let. 11 July in W. H. Curtis William Curtis (1941) 59, I am extremely obliged to you for the contents of your Botanic Vasculum. 1818 G. Graves Naturalist's Pocket-bk. 295 These [specimens] must be gathered on a dry day, and placed in a common tin vasculum or pocket herborizing Box. 1839 J. D. Hooker Jrnl. in L. Huxley Life J. D. Hooker (1918) I. 47 Two Botanising vascula. 1844 Proc. Berw. Nat. Club II. 82 The botanists having stored each their vasculum with specimens of the Rubi, the party again united. 1877 Sir C. W. Thomson Voy. Challenger I. 14 Various implements such as..botanical vasculums. 1887 J. Ball Nat. in S. Amer. 128, I shouldered my tin vasculum and went ashore. |