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The leafy involucre surrounding the fruit stalk of mosses; perichætium; perichete.

The involucre which surrounds the common receptacle in composite flowers.

class; -- opposed to Ant: common noun; as, John, Boston, America. -- Proper perianth or involucre (Bot.), that which incloses only a single flower. -- Proper receptacle (Bot.), a receptacle which supports only a single flower or fructification.

owers, consisting of perennial herbs with showy pedunculate heads, having a hemispherical involucre, sterile ray flowers, and a conical chaffy receptacle. There are about thirty species, exclusively North American. Rudbeckia hirta, the black-eyed Susan, is a common weed in meadows.

A special involucre formed of one leaf and inclosing a spadix, as in aroid plants and palms. See the Note under Bract, and Illust. of Spadix.

actylis gummifera, a native of the Mediterranean region. A vicid gum resin flows from the involucre. -- Scotch thistle, either the cotton thistle, or the musk thistle, or the spear thistle; -- all used national emblems of Scotland. -- Sow thistle, Sonchus oleraceus. -- Spear thistle. Same as Bull thistle. -- Star t…

orangia are borne on threadlike receptacles rising from the middle of cup-shaped marginal involucres. Several species are common in conservatories; two are native in the United States.

irst or largest set of rays in a compound umbel; -- opposed to partial umbel. A universal involucre is not unfrequently placed at the foot of a universal umbel.

A genus of composite plants in which the scales of the involucre are united so as to form a kind of bur; cocklebur; clotbur.