[f. L. vēna VEIN sb.]

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  † 1.  The arrangement or structure of sap-vessels in plants. Obs.–1

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1646.  Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., III. i. 106. As for the manner of their venation,… we shall find it to be otherwise then as is commonly presumed, by sawing away of trees.

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  2.  a. Bot. The arrangement of the veins in the leaves of plants.

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1830.  Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., Introd. p. xxii. Many other orders are distinguished without exception by modifications of venation.

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1851.  G. F. Richardson, Geol., vii. 170. In leaves we can rarely recognise, in a fossil state, more than their mode of venation, division, arrangement, and outline.

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1890.  Science-Gossip, XXVI. 181. I took a specimen … with six well-developed leaves, the venation being very distinct.

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  b.  Ent. The arrangement of the veins in the wings of insects.

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1861–2.  Le Conte, Classif. Coleoptera N. Amer., I. Introd. p. xviii. The venation is subject to variation in different genera.

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1891.  Science Gossip, XXVII. 53. The venation in many genera [of the Nematocera] varies in the relative lengths of some of the veins and their respective positions.

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  Hence Venational a., of or relating to venation.

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1891.  in Cent. Dict.

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