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A circle of two or more leaves, flowers, or other organs, about the same part or joint of a stem.

Furnished with whorls; arranged in the form of a whorl or whorls; verticillate; as, whorled leaves.

A potter's wheel.

Not cyclic; not disposed in cycles or whorls; as: (a) (Bot.)

A genus of slender herbs, usually with square stems, whorled leaves, and small white flowers. Our Lady's bedstraw, which has yellow flowers, is Galium verum. -- White bedstraw is G. mollugo.

A genus of flowerless plants, having articulated stems and whorled branches. They flourish in wet places.

A name given to several inconspicuous plants having leaves in whorls of four, as species of Crucianella, Valantia, etc.

Right, as opposed to sinistral, or left. Dextral shell (Zoöl.), a spiral shell the whorls of which turn from left right, or like the hands of a watch when the apex of the spire is toward the eye of the observer.

Having the form of a disk, as those univalve shells which have the whorls in one plane, so as to form a disk, as the pearly nautilus. Discoid flower (Bot.), a compound flower, consisting of tubular florets only, as a tansy, lacking the rays which are seen in the daisy and sunflower.

ommonly netted-veined, and the number of cotyledons is two, or, very rarely, several in a whorl. Cf. Endogen. Gray.

One of the whorls of a spiral univalve shell. Center of gyration. (Mech.) See under Center. -- Radius of gyration the distance between the axis of a rotating body and its center of gyration. Rankine.

A fossil cephalopod of the genus Hamites, related to the ammonites, but having the last whorl bent into a hooklike form.

At the same node with opposite or whorled leaves, but occupying a position between their places of attachment.

A whorl or set of bracts around a flower, umbel, or head.

A tall composite plant of the genus Eupatorium (E. purpureum), with purplish flowers, and whorled leaves.

An aquatic plant of the genus Hippuris (H.vulgaris), having narrow leaves in whorls.

number of petals in consequence of the abnormal multiplication of the parts of the floral whorls.

Having few spirals, or whorls; as, a paucispiral operculum or shell.

Four-leaved; having the leaves in whorls of four.

Having the whorls rising from left to right; dextral; -- said of spiral shells. See Illust. of Scalaria. Right-handed screw, a screw, the threads of which, like those of a common wood screw, wind spirally in such a direction that screw advances away from the observer when turned with a right-handed movement in a fixed…