Pl. vaginulæ. Zool. and Bot. [L. vāgīnula, dim. of vāgīna VAGINA.] A little sheath or vagina; esp. in Bot. the capsule or theca enclosing the base of the seta in certain mosses.
a. 1843. Wilkinson, trans. Swedenborg’s Anim. Kingd., I. i. 18. The external … membrane of the mouth forms a number of pyramidal and globular pouches or vaginulæ.
b. 1849. Balfour, Man. Bot., § 1114. Urn-shaped pistillidia…, enclosed at first within a calyptra…, which is ultimately carried up with them…, leaving often a sheath (vaginula) round the bottom of the fruit-stalk.
1863. M. J. Berkeley, Brit. Mosses, iii. 20. In Sphagnum the vaginula is lifted up on a cylindrical hyaline stalk.
1882. Vines, trans. Sachs’s Bot., 360. The basal portion of the growing archegonium becomes swollen out and penetrates down into the tissue of the stem, being nourished and firmly enclosed by it (the vaginula).
