Also 6 vegitacion, 7–8 -tion. [ad. (late and) med.L. vegetātio, f. vegetāre VEGETATE v. So F. végétation, It. vegetazione, Sp. vegetacion, Pg. vegetação.
The definitions ‘a comforting, making strong,’ etc., in Cockeram (1623), and Blount (1656), are merely copied from Cooper’s explanation of vegetatio in Apuleius.]
I. Abstract senses.
1. The action of vegetating or growing; the faculty, process or phenomena of growth and development as possessed by certain organic substances; vegetal activity or property.
a. In general use.
1564. J. Day, trans. Martyr’s Comm. Judges, xiii. 212. To eate, is not onely to chawe the meate,… but moreouer to conuert it into the substawnce of hys bodye, by concoction thoroughe the power of vegitacion.
1594. Plat, Jewell-ho., II. 11. Salt … causeth the vegetation, perfection, maturitie, and the whole good that is contained in euery thing that nourisheth.
1605. Timme, Quersit., I. xiii. 57. A most pure and perfect body, replenished with vital spirits, and full of vegetation.
1768. Pennant, Brit. Zool., I. Pref. 10. Through every species of animal life,… to that point where sense is almost extinct, and vegetation commences.
1813. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem. (1814), 7. The phenomena of vegetation must be considered as an important branch of the science of organized Nature.
fig. 1755. Young, Centaur, vi. Wks. 1757, IV. 281. The light of God’s countenance is the sun of the human soul, whence all its vegetation of real felicity.
† b. Of the soul. Obs. (Cf. VEGETATIVE a. 1 a.)
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 16. One soul hath those three essentiall faculties of Vnderstanding, Will, and Memorie, or (as others) of Vegetation, Sense, and Reason.
1620. T. Granger, Div. Logike, 55. Sence, and vegetation is an effect by emanation of the soule.
c. Of plants or seeds. † Also, vegetative power (quot. 1665).
1661. Sir K. Digby (title), A Discourse concerning the Vegetation of Plants.
1665. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (1677), 333. The root where the sap lies constantly conveying vegetation to the tree in those warm Regions.
1707. Curios. in Husb. & Gard., 28. The Operations of each Plant, which are Nutrition, Augmentation and Propagation,… we … express by the single Word Vegetation, which in Effect includes them all.
1760. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., I. vii. (1765), 14. The Seed … is a deciduous Part of the Vegetable, the Rudiment of a new one, quickened for Vegetation by the Sprinkling of the Pollen.
1789. Mrs. Piozzi, Journ. France, II. 191. In these countries vegetation is so rapid, that every thing makes haste to come and more to go.
1813. Bakewell, Introd. Geol. (1815), 250. The vegetation of perennial grasses in the spring is at least a fortnight sooner on lime-stone and sandy soils … than on clayey.
1853. Robertson, Serm., Ser. III. (1872), iii. 31. Seeds and germs … incapable of vegetation in the unkindly climate of their birth.
1884. Bower & Scott, De Bary’s Phaner., 561. The intercellular air-spaces of the cortical parenchyma are in open communication with the external air at the time of active vegetation.
† d. Of inorganic substances. Obs.
1676. Phil. Trans., XI. 739. They are prepossest with an opinion against the vegetation of all Stones.
1748. Earthquake of Peru, Pref. p. xi. As a Proof of the quick Vegetation of Silver, it has been known that on opening an ancient Mine, which had formerly fallen-in upon certain poor Wretches who were digging in it, the Bones of these were found some of them perforated with that Metal.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1824), I. 33. This is not a place for an inquiry into the seeming vegetation of those stony substances.
† 2. An act or instance of vegetating; a stage in plant growth or development. Obs.
1672. Grew, Anat. Pl., Idea (1682), 1. The Method of Nature her self, in her continued Series of Vegetations; proceeding from the Seed sown, to the formation of the Root.
† 3. transf. The production of a plant-like formation. Obs. (Cf. 5 b.)
1707. Curios. in Husb. & Gard., 305. The Artificial Vegetation of Silver, commonly called Diana’s Tree.
1823. Ure, Dict. Chem., s.v., The Influence of the Air and Light upon the Vegetation of Salts.
1842. Francis, Dict. Arts, Vegetation of Salts, a curious phenomena [sic], which takes place when strong solutions of metallic salts are left in glass, earthenware, or other vessels.
4. fig. Existence similar or comparable to that of a vegetable; dull, empty, or stagnant life spent in retirement or seclusion.
1797. Godwin, Enquirer, I. xiii. 114. His state is rather a state of vegetation.
1833. T. Hook, Parson’s Dau., I. xi. In this state of vegetation he remained until about ten o’clock.
1854. J. S. C. Abbott, Napoleon (1855), I. xvi. 290. Hedouville … went to spend a life of mere vegetation in Spain.
1882. Miss Braddon, Mt.-Royal, II. iv. 53. You can’t expect to find much difference in me after three years’ vegetation in Cornwall.
II. Concrete senses.
5. † a. A vegetable form or growth; a plant.
1683. Tryon, Way to Health, 518. At which times all Vegitations are in their flourishing state. Ibid. (1691), Wisd. Dictates, 110. The pleasant Ferment … of the Stomach can with much more facility … disgest Vegitations, than Flesh or Fish.
1707. Curios. in Husb. & Gard., 29. Some Vegetations,… as … Mushrooms and Mosses: the maritime Vegetations,… are not properly Plants.
b. A plant-like growth or formation due to chemical action. (Cf. 3.)
1790. Phil. Trans., LXXX. 378. Bergman relates, that he has sometimes observed beautiful crystallizations or vegetations of metallic silver formed on pieces of iron immersed long in a solution of silver.
1796. Kirwan, Elem. Min. (ed. 2), II. 446. The Nickel forming greenish vegetations.
1800. trans. Lagrange’s Chem., II. 133. At the end of some hours there will be formed, at the surface of the small mass of amalgam, a vegetation in the form of a bush.
1823. J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 124. A beautiful white vegetation will be perceptible round the wire.
1849. J. R. Jackson, Min., 287. A pretty metallic vegetation in glass jars:… called the Tree of Diana.
c. Path. A morbid fungoid growth or excrescence occurring on some part of the body.
1835. Cycl. Pract. Med., IV. 419/2. Warty vegetations of the valves.—These excrescences bear a close resemblance to venereal warty vegetations.
1861. Bumstead, Ven. Dis. (1879), 242. Vegetations are papillary growths springing from the skin or mucous membrane, chiefly in the neighborhood of the genital organs.
1879. St. George’s Hosp. Rep., IX. 327. The posterior flap at its right corner bore a large vegetation, assuming the shape of a mushroom, of about 11/4 inch in diameter.
6. Plants collectively; plants or vegetal growths as a product of the soil, freq. considered in respect of a certain area.
1727–46. Thomson, Summer, 440. Deep to the root Of vegetation parch’d, the cleaving fields … an arid hue disclose.
1794. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xliii. The paths were rude, and frequently overgrown with vegetation.
1813. Shelley, Q. Mab, VIII. 170. Blue mists … Scattered the seeds of pestilence, and fed Unnatural vegetation.
1859. Darwin, Orig. Spec., iii. (1860), 74. When an American forest is cut down, a very different vegetation springs up.
1881. Nature, No. 619. 448. An admirable summary of the vegetation of the different regions of the globe.
transf. 1847. Leitch, trans. C. O. Müller’s Anc. Art, § 275. 265. The Corinthian places in the room of the simple bulge of the Doric order a slender body … gradually enlarging and richly clothed with vegetation.
attrib. 1878. W. R. S. Ralston, in Contemp. Rev., Feb., 536. A reference to vegetation-spirits and their foes.
b. (See quot.)
1870. Eng. Mech., 21 Jan., 448/2. In old object glasses there is occasionally an appearance which has been called ‘vegetation,’ and which consists of a number of very thin lines disposed in an arborescent form.
Hence Vegetationless a.
1846. Lond. Jrnl. Bot., V. 425–6. Bleak, snow-clad, vegetationless mountains.
1855. Lewes, Goethe, I. 233. On the vegetationless surface the radiation is direct.
