Columella

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A little column.
2. n. 2.In botany: In many cryptogams, especially in Musci, as Mucorini and Myxomycetes, a central axis in the spore-case, a continuation of the pedicel. The spores are arranged about it, and in the Myxomycetes the capillitium branches from it.
3. n. The persistent axis of certain capsules, from which the edges of the valves break away.
4. n. The carpophore in Umbelliferæ, the continuation of the axis bearing the two halves of the fruit.
5. n. In Zoöl. and anatomy: The upright pillar in the center of most of the univalve shells, round which the whorls are convoluted. See cut under univalve.
6. n. A bone of the tympanic cavity or middle ear in birds, most reptiles, and some amphibians, corresponding to the stirrup-bone or stapes of mammals; the columella auris.
7. n. A bone of the side of the skull of some reptiles, especially lizards, a peculiar dismemberment of the pterygoid, which may meet the parietal or a process of it; the column-bone; the columella cranii. Its presence in nearly all lizards gives rise to the term Cionocrania, or “column-skulls,” as a major division of Lacertilia. See cuts under acrodont and Cyclodus.
8. n. The modiolus or central axis of the cochlea in mammals, round which the lamina spiralis winds; the columella cochleæ
9. n. A core of connective tissue in crinoids which occupies the central cavity included by the coil of the alimentary canal.
10. n. A structure in the center of the visceral chamber of corals, typically a calcareous rod which extends from the bottom of the chamber to the floor of the calice, projecting upward in the latter, and with which the primary septa are usually connected.
11. n. One of the rods attached to the hyomandibular capsule of the urodele amphibians, representing a remnant of a branchial arch.
12. n. A process in the chitinous mandibles of polyzoans.
13. n. In human anatomy, an old name of the uvula.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. An axis to which a carpel of a compound pistil may be attached, as in the case of the geranium; or which is left when a pod opens.
2. n. A columnlike axis in the capsules of mosses.
3. n. (Anat.) A term applied to various columnlike parts.
4. n. The upright pillar in the axis of most univalve shells.
5. n. The central pillar or axis of the calicles of certain corals.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a small column (or structure resembling a column) that is a part of a plant or animal