a. [f. L. vāsi- VAS + -FORM.]
1. Having the form of a duct or similar conveying vessel; tubular.
a. Phys. 1835–6. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., I. 245/2. The blood [of Cirripeds] … is propelled by a dorsal vasiform heart. Ibid. (1839), III. 365/2. The systemic heart first appears in the sessile Tunicaries as a vasiform undivided ventricle.
1861. Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, II. V. ii. 261. The secreting glands are … vasiform tortuous tubes.
1870. Rolleston, Anim. Life, 98. The more elongated and vasiform heart.
b. Bot. 1839. Lindley, Introd. Bot. (ed. 3), 21. Of Pitted Tissue, or Bothrenchyma…. Vasiform Tissue, Dotted Ducts.
1866. Treas. Bot., 1205/1. Vasiform tissue, ducts, that is tubes having the appearance of spiral vessels and bothrenchyma.
1885. Goodale, Physiol. Bot. (1892), 87. Vasiform elements.
2. Shaped like a vase.
1846. Dana, Zooph. (1848), 433, 1. The mode of growth:… spreading each way from a central pedicel, and concave above (vasiform, or vase shape).
1882. Garden, 1 April, 212/2. The flowers … form a vasiform tuft.
