CATKIN n.
; a species of inflorescence, consisting of a slender axis with many unisexual apetalous flowers along its sides, as in the willow and poplar, and (as to the staminate flowers) in the chestnut, oak, hickory, etc. -- so called from its resemblance to a cat's tail. See Illust. of Ament.
CAUDA GALLI n.
A plume-shaped fossil, supposed to be a seaweed, characteristic of the lower Devonian rocks; as, the cauda galli grit. Gauda galli epoch (Geol.), an epoch at the begining of the Devonian age in eastern America, so named from the characteristic gritty sandstone marked with impressions of cauda galli. See the Diagram und…
CELLULAR a.
of or pertaining to a cell or cells. Cellular plants, Cellular cryptogams (Bot.), those flowerless plants which have no ducts or fiber in their tissue, as mosses, fungi, lichens, and algæ. -- Cellular theory, or Cell theory (Biol.), a theory, according to which the essential element of every tissue, either vegetable…
CENTURY n.
ommanded by a centurion. Century plant (Bot.), the Agave Americana, formerly supposed to flower but once in a century; - - hence the name. See Agave. -- The Magdeburg Centuries, an ecclesiastical history of the first thirteen centuries, arranged in thirteen volumes, compiled in the 16th century by Protestant scholars…