‖ blastema
(blæˈstiːmə)
Pl. blaˈstemata.
[a. Gr. βλάστηµα a sprout, also, in Hippocrates, a morbid humour causing scab or disease, f. vbl. stem βλαστε-, βλαστα- to sprout, bud.]
1. Biol. The primary formative material of plants and animals; protoplasm. Now applied spec. to the initial matter or growth out of which any part is developed.
| 1849 Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. IV. 100/2 The structureless fluid just referred to is termed blastema. 1855 Owen Skel. & Teeth 5 The primitive basis, or ‘blastema,’ of bone is a subtransparent glairy matter. 1879 tr. De Quatrefages' Human Spec. 124 Adam, who sprang from a primordial blastema called clay in the Bible. |
| transf. 1870 Huxley Lay Serm. xiii. (1874) 309 A nebular blastema. |
2. Bot. The budding or sprouting part of a plant; the thallus of a lichen.
| 1880 Gray Bot. Text-bk. 399. |