verticil
(ˈvɜːtɪsɪl)
Also 8–9 verticel.
[ad. L. verticill-us verticillus. Cf. F. verticille in sense 2 (also, in earlier use, a whorl).]
† 1. (See quot.). Obs.—1
| 1703 A. de La Prime Let. to Sir H. Sloan (Sloan MSS. 4056) fol. 33 Verticels or glass Beads formed on purpose to wind thread on. |
2. Bot. A number or set of organs or parts arranged, disposed, or produced in a circle round an axis (see quot. 1882); a whorl. false verticil or spurious verticil, a verticillaster.
Also similarly in Zool. (in recent Dicts.).
| α 1793 Martyn Dict. Bot. s.v., A Verticil or Whirl may be 1. Sessile or peduncled. 2. Naked... 3. Crowded. 1806 J. Galpine Brit. Bot. §258 Ajuga... Hairy: verticils crowded into a pyramidal form, many-flowered. 1826–34 Encycl. Metrop. (1845) VII. 43/2 The stamens in the same verticil are sometimes joined together, and sometimes with the neighbouring verticils. 1882 Vines Sachs' Bot. 170 An axial structure may produce either several equivalent lateral members at the same level, or only one; in the second case the members formed in succession are termed solitary, in the first case a Whorl or Verticil. |
| β 1856 Henslow Dict. Bot. Terms 214 Verticel, Verticillus,..a whorl. 1872 Nicholson Palæont. 483 The joints of the stems give off verticels of leaves. 1881 Spencer in Science Gossip No. 202. 229 It is generally supposed that the branches were also arranged in verticels. |