INDEFINITE a.
a or an, used with nouns to denote any one of a common or general class. -- Indefinite inflorescence. (Bot.) See Indeterminate inflorescence, under Indeterminate. -- Indefinite proposition (Logic), a statement whose subject is a common term, with nothing to indicate distribution or nondistribution; as, Man is mortal.…
INDETERMINATE a.
te when it contains more unknown quantities than there are equations. -- Indeterminate inflorescence (Bot.), a mode of inflorescence in which the flowers all arise from axillary buds, the terminal bud going on to grow and sometimes continuing the stem indefinitely; -- called also acropetal, botryose, centripetal, and…
PLUME n.
A large and flexible panicle of inflorescence resembling a feather, such as is seen in certain large ornamental grasses. Plume bird (Zoöl.), any bird that yields ornamental plumes, especially the species of Epimarchus from New Guinea, and some of the herons and egrets, as the white heron of Florida (Ardea candidissima)…