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- Vitreous sponge (Zoöl.), any one of numerous species of siliceous sponges having, often fibrous, glassy spicules which are normally six-rayed; a hexactinellid sponge. See Venus's basket, under Venus.

a blue to green color, growing darker on exposure. It occurs in monoclinic crystals, also fibrous, massive, and earthy.

ction from involuntary motions, such as the movements of the heart); the voluntary muscle fibers, which are the agents in voluntary motion.

roperties of, as caoutchouc, or India rubber, by the process of vulcanization. Vulcanized fiber, paper, paper pulp, or other fiber, chemically treated, as with metallic chlorides, so as to form a substance resembling ebonite in texture, hardness, etc. Knight. -- Vulcanized rubber, India rubber, vulcanized.…

A soft mass, especially of some loose, fibrous substance, used for various purposes, as for stopping an aperture, padding a garment, etc. Wed hook, a rod with a screw or hook at the end, used for removing the wad from a gun.

A form of degeneration occurring in nerve fibers as a result of their division; -- so called from Dr. Waller, who published an account of it in 1850.

A bundle of fibers, or a loosely twisted or braided cord, tape, or tube, usually made of soft spun cotton threads, which by capillary attraction draws up a steady supply of the oil in lamps, the melted tallow or wax in candles, or other material used for illumination, in small successive portions, to be burned. But tru…

The substance of trees and the like; the hard fibrous substance which composes the body of a tree and its branches, and which is covered by the bark; timber. "To worship their own work in wood and stone for gods." Milton.

Consisting of, or containing, wood or woody fiber; ligneous; as, the woody parts of plants.

- Woolly butt (Bot.), an Australian tree (Eucalyptus longifolia), so named because of its fibrous bark. -- Woolly louse (Zoöl.), a plant louse (Schizoneura, or Erisoma, lanigera) which is often very injurious to the apple tree. It is covered with a dense coat of white filaments somewhat resembling fine wool or cotton.…

Well-twisted yarn spun of long-staple wool which has been combed to lay the fibers parallel, used for carpets, cloth, hosiery, gloves, and the like.

That portion of a fibrovascular bundle which has developed, or will develop, into wood cells; -- distinguished from phloëm.

A glutinous substance, insoluble in alcohol, resembling legumin; -- now called vegetable fibrin, vegetable albumin, or gluten casein.