circumscissile, a. Bot.
(sɜːkəmˈsɪsɪl)
[f. as prec., after scissile, L. scissilis.]
Name for a form of dehiscence in which the seed-vessel (pyxidium) opens by a transverse circular line, so that the upper part comes off like a lid.
| 1835 Lindley Introd. Bot. (1848) II. 5 Of valvular dehiscence, there is a very anomalous mode..called circumscissile. 1857 Henfrey Bot. §317 The fruit [of Mosses] is an urn-shaped capsule, which mostly opens by a circumscissile dehiscence. 1881 in Syd. Soc. Lex. |