a. Also 9 verticellate. [ad. mod.L. verticillāt-us, f. L. verticillus VERTICILLUS: see -ATE2 2. So It. verticillato, Sp. verticilado, Pg. verticillado, F. verticillé (1694).]
1. a. Bot. Of plants: Having leaves, flowers, branches, etc., arranged or produced in circles or whorls around the stem. Now rare or Obs.
1668. Wilkins, Real Char., II. iv. § 4. 81. Herbs considered according to their flower … may be distinguished into … Verticillate; by which those kinds of Plants are meant, whose flowers grow in rundles or whirles about the stalk.
1686. Phil. Trans., XVI. 286. The Verticillate Herbs, so called from the Flowers embracing the stalk like a whirl, or wherle.
c. 1711. Petiver, Gazophyl., x. 94. A Verticillate Water Herb, whose Husks stick to Cloaths like Burrs or Clivers.
1720. P. Blair, Bot. Ess., iii. 135. The Verticillate Kind are for the most part Irregular.
1796. C. Marshall, Garden., xix. (1813), 357. Coreopsis, verticillate, yellow.
1822–7. Good, Study Med. (1829), I. 174. The verticillate order affords an abundant stock, from which we may select [carminatives] at pleasure. Ibid., IV. 568. Many of the warmer sedatives and antispasmodics, as assafœtida, camphor, most of the verticillate plants, and cajeput.
b. Ent., etc. (See quots.)
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., IV. xlvi. 324. Verticillate..., antennæ beset with hair in whorls.
1883. Le Conte & G. H. Horn, Classif. Coleoptera N. Amer., Introd. p. xv. In this form the joints are frequently surrounded at tip with a circle of longer hairs, in which case the antennæ are said to be verticellate.
2. a. Bot. Of leaves, flowers, branches, etc.: Disposed in, or forming, verticils or whorls.
1793. Martyn, Dict. Bot., s.v., Verticillate flowers; or flowers growing in a Whirl; or round the stem in rings one above another at each joint.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 202. Square stems and verticillate leaves [of the Madder tribe].
1851. Mantell, Petrifactions, i. § 2. 26. Specimens of a common … tribe of coal-plants…, whose verticillate foliage is too remarkable to escape notice.
1882. Vines, Sachs’ Bot., 396. The branches and roots spring exclusively from within the base of the leaf-sheath; and as this forms a whorl, the branches and roots are also verticillate.
b. Similarly in Zool., Ent., etc.
1828. Stark, Elem. Nat. Hist., II. 378. Antennæ filiform, long, of from fifteen to sixteen globular joints, furnished with verticillate hairs.
1846. Dana, Zooph. (1848), 675. Verrucæ ascending,… verticillate.
1871. Duncan, Transform. Insects, 111. Each tubercle carries several verticillate hairs.
3. Marked or characterized by verticillation.
1832. Lindley, Introd. Bot., 113. The most exterior verticillate series of the integuments of the flower within the bracteæ.
1836–9. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., II. 411/1. Simple tubes, divided in a verticillate manner.
1877. Coues & Allen, N. Amer. Rod., 475. The verticillate whorls of scales between which the short hairs spring.
1882. Vines, Sachs’ Bot., 464. The phyllotaxis is sometimes verticillate, sometimes spiral.
