a. [ad. L. acerōs-us chaffy, f. acus, acer-is chaff; apparently afterwards referred in error to acus, acu-s a needle or acer sharp; whence, sense 2 in which it has been used by botanists since Linnæus. See Phil. Botanices, pp. 42, 219.]
1. Chaffy; like, or mixed with chaff.
1721. Bailey, vol. II.
1775. Ash, and mod. Dicts.
2. Bot. Needle-shaped and rigid; as in the leaves of heaths and pines.
1785. Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot. (1794), xxviii. 445. The leaves of all these are linear and permanent; Linnæus calls this sort of leaf acerose.
1870. Bentley, Bot., 159. When a linear leaf terminates in a sharp rigid point like a needle, it is acerose or needle-shaped.
