primine Bot.
(ˈpraɪmɪn)
[= F. primine (Mirbel 1828), f. L. prīm-us first +-ine1.]
The first of the two coats or integuments of an ovule; i.e. a. (originally), the outer one; but subsequently b. applied to the inner, as being formed first. Opp. to secundine.
| a. 1832 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 7) V. 52 note, The extensible side of the secundine, and even of the tercine or nucleus, soon ceases to increase with the corresponding side of the primine. 1835 Lindley Introd. Bot. (1848) I. 395 The outermost of the sacs is called the primine. 1858 Mayne Expos. Lex., Primina, Bot., name given by Mirbel to the more exterior of the two membranes which envelope the nucleus of the ovule when the latter has assumed a certain degree of increase: the primine. |
| b. 1875 Bennett & Dyer Sachs' Bot. 501 When there are two or three integuments, the innermost (the Primine..) is always formed first, then the outer one (the Secundine), and finally..the Aril. 1875 Huxley & Martin Elem. Biol. (1883) 83 Its two coats, an inner (primine) and outer (secundine). 1885 G. L. Goodale Physiol. Bot. (1892) 178 The integuments of the seed answer morphologically to the primine and secundine of the ovule. |