crepis
(ˈkriːpɪs)
1. Bot. [mod.L. (Linnæus Genera Plantarum (1737) 240), ad. Gr. κρηπίς, Theophrastus's name for another plant.] A plant of the large genus of herbs so called, belonging to the family Compositæ and including a few cultivated species.
| 1822 Loudon Encycl. Gardening Index 1383/2 Crepis,..of easy culture. 1904 R. J. Farrer Garden Asia 246 Twinkling gold of crepis. 1919 ― Eng. Rock-Garden I. 243 No Crepis is worthy of admission to the rock-garden..except the following: C. incisa..; C. rubra..; and C. lagoseris. 1948 A. G. L. Hellyer Amateur Gardener viii. 199 Most species of crepis are weeds and all have flowers like small dandelions. |
2. Biol. [ad. Gr. κρηπίς base.] A sponge-spicule forming the central axis of a desma.
| 1900 E. A. Minchin in Lankester Treat. Zool. II. 134 Each desma is formed typically by secondary deposits of silica upon a true spicule termed the crepis or foundation. 1940 L. H. Hyman Invertebrates I. vi. 299 The deposited silica at first follows the shape of the crepis. 1963 I. F. & W. D. Henderson Dict. Biol. (ed. 8) 124/1 Crepis, the fundamental spicule by deposition of silica upon which a desma is formed. |