Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Having floral parts attached to or near the summit of the ovary, as in the flower of the apple, cucumber, or daffodil.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In botany, growing upon the top of the ovary, or seeming to do so, as the corolla and stamens of the cranberry.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Bot.) Adnate to the surface of the ovary, so as to be apparently inserted upon the top of it; -- said of stamens, petals, sepals, and also of the disk.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective botany Having an inferior ovary that is completely buried within the receptacle.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • When the plants in which these occurrences happen most frequently are compared together, it may be seen that partial or entire suppression of the floral envelopes, calyx, and corolla, is far more commonly met with in the polypetalous and hypogynous groups than in the gamopetalous or epigynous series.

    Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters

  • In _Umbelliferæ_ the epigynous condition is changed for the perigynous, &c.

    Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters

  • The seven series of Monocotyledons represent a sequence beginning with the most complicated epigynous orders, such as Orchideae and

    Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Part 1, Slice 1 Various

  • Schnizlein [201] observed hermaphrodite flowers in the beech, _Fagus sylvatica_, the ovaries being smaller than usual, and the stamens epigynous.

    Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters

  • Advance has been along two lines, markedly in relation to insect-pollination, one of which has culminated in the hypogynous epipetalous bicarpellate forms with dorsiventral often large and loosely arranged flowers such as occur in Scrophulariaceae, and the other in the epigynous bicarpellate small-flowered families of which the Compositae represent the most elaborate type.

    Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Part 1, Slice 1 Various

  • Varieties differ from their species clearly in one point, and this is either a distinct loss, or the assumption of a character, which may be met with in other species and genera. _laevifolia_ is distinguished by the loss of the crinkling of the leaves, _brevistylis_ by the partial loss of the epigynous qualities of the flowers, and _nanella_ is a dwarf.

    Species and Varieties, Their Origin by Mutation Hugo de Vries 1891

  • Ovary inferior, held in the concavity of the receptacle, one-celled, with 1 seed, crowned by an epigynous disc, above which rises a simple style with dilated stigma.

    The Medicinal Plants of the Philippines Jerome Beers Thomas 1891

  • A still further advance is made by the contraction of the axis, so as to leave the central part forming the ovary quite below the flower, which is then termed epigynous.

    Darwinism (1889) Alfred Russel Wallace 1868

  • A theory of variation should deal alike with the origin of specific distinctions and with those vaster differences which characterise the larger groups, and he thinks it should answer such questions as -- How an axis comes to be arrested to form a flower? how the various forms of inflorescence were evolved? how did perigynous or epigynous flowers arise from hypogynous flowers? and many others equally fundamental.

    Darwinism (1889) Alfred Russel Wallace 1868

  • The plants with hypogynous flowers should, as a rule, have less seed and more vigorous and abundant foliage than those at the other extreme with epigynous flowers.

    Darwinism (1889) Alfred Russel Wallace 1868

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