a. [ad. mod.L. vāsculār-is, f. L. vāscul-um, dim. of vās VAS. So F. vasculaire, It. vasculare, Sp. and Pg. vascular.]
1. Bot. Of fibers, tissue, etc.: Having the form of tubular vessels; consisting of continuous tubes of simple membrane.
1672–3. Grew, Anat. Pl., Anat. Roots (1682), 69. The Vascular Rays are not equally extended in all Roots.
1756. C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, I. 156. The solids are all vascular, and consist of elastic fibres.
1791. Hamilton, Berthollet’s Dyeing, I. I. I. iii. 52. The vascular fibres of the bark.
1837. P. Keith, Bot. Lex., 68. The membranous tissue of the plant, whether cellular or vascular, is uniformly colourless.
1847. H. Miller, Test. Rocks (1857), 31. Its mass of soft cellular tissue is strengthened all round by internal buttresses of dense vascular fibre.
1875. J. W. Dawson, Dawn of Life, ii. 32. Plants existed at that time having true woody or vascular tissues.
b. Of structure: Characterized by the prevalence of tubular vessels.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Vegetable, The vascular Structure of Vegetables, is render’d very apparent, by an Experiment of Mr. Willoughby.
1807. J. E. Smith, Phys. Bot., 13. From preceding writers we had learned the general tubular or vascular structure of the vegetable body.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 9. Endogens are flowering plants with a vascular structure.
c. Vascular system, the aggregate of tubular vessels in a plant.
1813. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem. (1814), 60. The alburnum is the great vascular system of the vegetable through which the sap rises.
1832. Lindley, Introd. Bot., 59. In both cases there is a cellular and vascular system distinct from each other.
1866. Treas. Bot., 1205/1. Vascular system, all that part of the interior structure of a plant into whose composition spiral vessels or their modifications enter.
d. of plants: Having a vascular structure.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., Introd. p. xiv. All plants that bear flowers have spiral vessels, and are therefore Vascular.
1849. Murchison, Siluria, xii. 287. The great mass of the plants belong to the vascular cryptogamic class.
1861. Bentley, Man. Bot., 67. The lowest orders of Vascular Plants, like the true Mosses, are comparatively insignificant in appearance.
2. Anat. or Phys. Having the character or properties of a conveying vessel or vessels.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., All the Flesh in an animal Body is found to be Vascular, none of it Parenchymous.
1756. C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, I. 2. The several parts of its body being, at some time of its existence, vascular.
1802. Paley, Nat. Theol., xi. (ed. 2), 209. It [the spleen] must be vascular, and admit of a circulation through it, in order to be kept alive, or be part of a living body.
1835. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., I. 126/1. The vascular is another tissue extensively distributed among animals.
1880. Beale, Slight Ailments, 85. If we could see the mucous membrane in … cases of indigestion we should no doubt find it unduly vascular.
fig. 1838. Emerson, Address, Lit. Ethics, Wks. (Bohn), II. 209. An able man is nothing else than a good, free, vascular organization, whereinto the universal spirit freely flows. Ibid. (1847), Repr. Men, Montaigne, Ibid., I. 344. Cut these words, and they would bleed; they are vascular and alive.
b. Vascular system: (see quot. 1876).
1725. Robinson, Phys. & Dis., 255. The Air … obliges the whole vascular System of the Solids to redouble their Contractions.
1800. Med. Jrnl., IV. 215. To restore the energy and lost tone of the vascular system.
1876. Bristowe, Th. & Pract. Med. (1878), 485. The vascular system comprises the heart, arteries, veins, and capillaries; the lymphatic glands and vessels, together with certain ductless glands; and the blood with its tributary fluids.
c. Affecting the vascular system or tissue.
1869. Spencer, Princ. Psychol., II. v. (1872), I. 236. The vascular excitement, caused by emotion.
1881. Med. Temp. Jrnl., XLVIII. 206. The first stage of alcoholic action is vascular excitement rapidly followed by exhaustion.
