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A small shield, especially one of an approximately elliptic form, or crescent-shaped.

Shield-shaped; scutiform; (Bot.) having the stem or support attached to the lower surface, instead of at the base or margin; -- said of a leaf or other organ. -- Pel"tate*ly, adv.

Having a shell or covering like a double shield.

The May apple (Podophyllum peltatum).

The May apple (Podophyllum peltatum). See May apple under May, and Podophyllum. [U.S.]

g the slender branches. -- May apple (Bot.), the fruit of an American plant (Podophyllum peltatum). Also, the plant itself (popularly called mandrake), which has two lobed leaves, and bears a single egg-shaped fruit at the forking. The root and leaves, used in medicine, are powerfully drastic. -- May beetle, May bug…

Any plant of the genus Tropæolum, geraniaceous herbs, having mostly climbing stems, peltate leaves, and spurred flowers, and including the common Indian cress (Tropæolum majus), the canary-bird flower (T. peregrinum), and about thirty more species, all natives of South America. The whole plant has a warm pungent flavor…

A European perennial succulent herb (Cotyledon umbilicus), having round, peltate leaves with a central depression; -- also called pennywort, and kidneywort.

A plant (Ricinus communis) with ornamental peltate and palmately cleft foliage, growing as a woody perennial in the tropics, and cultivated as an herbaceous annual in temperate regions; -- called also castor-oil plant. [Sometimes corrupted into palmcrist.]

To throw out words. [Obs.] Another smothered seems to peltand swear. Shak.

Shieldlike, with the outline nearly circular; peltate. Henslow.

A brown bitter gum extracted from the rootstalk of the May apple (Podophyllum peltatum). It is a complex mixture of several substances.

A genus of herbs of the Barberry family, having large palmately lobed peltate leaves and solitary flower. There are two species, the American Podohyllum peltatum, or May apple, the Himalayan P. Emodi.

A species of grain (Triticum Spelta) much cultivated for food in Germany and Switzerland; -- called also German wheat.

A tropical American tree (Cecropia peltata) of the Breadfruit family, having hollow stems, which are used for wind instruments; -- called also snakewood, and trumpet tree.

- Umbrella leaf (Bot.), an American perennial herb (Dyphylleia cymosa), having very large peltate and lobed radical leaves. -- Umbrella shell. (Zoöl.) See Umbrella, 3. -- Umbrella tree (Bot.), a kind of magnolia (M. Umbrella) with the large leaves arranged in umbrellalike clusters at the ends of the branches. It is a…

An aquatic American plant (Brasenia peltata) having floating oval leaves, and the covered with a clear jelly.