calyx
(ˈkælɪks, ˈkeɪlɪks)
Formerly also calix. Pl. calyces (ˈkælɪsɪz), rarely calyxes.
[L. calyx, a. Gr. κάλυξ outer covering of a fruit, flower, or bud; shell, husk, pod, pericarp (from root of καλύπτειν to cover). In med.L. and in the Romanic langs., this word has run together in form with the much commoner Latin word calix ‘cup, goblet, drinking vessel’; and the two are to a great extent treated as one by modern scientific writers, so that the calyx of a flower is commonly (though quite erroneously) explained as the ‘flower-cup’, and the form calyx and its derivatives are applied to many cup-like organs, which have nothing to do with the calyx of a flower, but are really meant to be compared to a calix or cup. See sense 2 and cf. calix.]
1. a. Bot. The whorl of leaves (sepals), either separate or grown together, and usually green, forming the outer envelope in which the flower is enclosed while yet in the bud. Called by Grew, 1682, Empalement.
| [1671 Malpighi Anat. Plant., Calyx..floris basis est. 1686 Ray Hist. Plant. I. A 2 Calyx, folliculus sive, involucrum floris..the cup enclosing or containing the flower.] 1693 [see calyculate]. 1704 in J. Harris Lex. Techn. 1718 R. Bradley New Improv. Planting ii. (ed. 2) 83 The other [race] whose petals cannot contain themselves within the Bounds of the Chalyx, are call'd round podded Flowers. 1737–59 Miller Gard. Dict. Explan. Terms, The empalement, Calix, is generally understood to mean, those less tender leaves, which cover the other parts of the flower. 1791 E. Darwin Bot. Gard. i. 195 note, The effect of light..occasions the actions of the vegetable muscles..which open their calyxes and chorols. 1802 M. Edgeworth Moral T. (1816) I. xvii. 144 The brown calyces of the geranium flowers. 1866 Ruskin Eth. Dust 212 The calyx is nothing but the swaddling clothes of the flower; the child-blossom is bound up in it, hand and foot. |
b. Applied to similar parts of other organisms.
| 1851 Richardson Geol. viii. 224 In the sea-lily it [the stomach] reposes in the calyx surrounded by the arms. 1872 Nicholson Palæont. 119 At the summit of the stem is placed the body, which is termed the ‘calyx’. |
2. Phys. and
Biol. Variant spelling of
calix.
| 1831 R. Knox Cloquet's Anat. 798 The Calyces (Infundibula) are small membraneous ducts which embrace..the circumference of the mammillæ. 1836 Todd Cycl. Anat. I. 357/1 The part of the ovary in which the ovum is lodged is termed the calyx. |
3. Comb., as
calyx-base,
calyx-leaf,
calyx-limb,
calyx-lobe,
calyx-segment,
calyx-tooth,
calyx-tube;
calyx-like adj. calyx-bursting, bursting of the calyx, a defect in carnations;
calyx(-form) crater or krater Gr. Antiq., a crater (sense 1) of the shape of a calyx.
| 1870 Hooker Stud. Flora 315 Beta..Fruit adnate to the disk and *calyx-base. |
| 1900 Westm. Gaz. 7 May 4/2 *Calyx-bursting is a fatal objection to many varieties otherwise superb. |
| 1896 C. H. Smith in Catal. Gr. Vases Brit. Mus. III. 280 *Calyx-form Craters. 1912 J. D. Beazley in Ann. Brit. Sch. Athens XVIII. 225 The pattern No. 15 does not occur on any other rf. kalyx-krater. 1915 Oxf. Univ. Gaz. 3 Feb. 378/2 The other vases include two hydriæ,..two amphoræ,..and a calyx-crater. |
| 1872 Oliver Elem. Bot. i. i. 7 *Calyx-leaves or Sepals. |
| 1849–52 Todd Cycl. Anat. IV. 1137/2 A..*calyx-like arrangement. |
| 1870 Hooker Stud. Flora 176 *Calyx-limb deciduous. |
| 1859 Darwin Orig. Spec. vii. (1872) 173 The uppermost flower generally has two *calyx-lobes. |
| 1870 Hooker Stud. Flora 66 Stamens inserted on the *calyx-mouth. |
| Ibid. 115 Bracts longer than the ovate *calyx-segments. |
| Ibid. 265 *Calyx-teeth short. |
| Ibid. 183 *Calyx-tube and corolla white. |