‖ Polygamia Bot.
(pɒlɪˈgeɪmɪə)
[mod. L. (Linnæus).]
The twenty-third class in the Linnæan Sexual System, comprising species which bear both hermaphrodite and unisexual (male or female) flowers, on the same or different plants. Hence ˈpolygam, a plant of this class; polyˈgamian a., belonging to the class Polygamia; n. = polygam.
| 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp., Polygamia..a class of plants, which have a diversity of combinations of the male and female parts of their flowers, and many ways of fructification in the same species. 1785 Martyn Rousseau's Bot. ix. (1794) 96 It is entitled polygamia, from this variety in the flowers. 1828 Webster, Polygam, Polygamian. 1835 Henslow Princ. Bot. §139 In Polygamia..we have three kinds of flowers, which may all, or some only, be placed on the same plant. |