Bot. and Zool. [ad. L. virgātus, f. virga rod.]
1. Rod-like; long, slender and straight.
1821. W. P. C. Barton, Flora N. Amer., I. 17. Branches virgate, elongated, one-flowered.
1832. Lindley, Introd. Bot., 47. From this kind of branch [sc. vimen], that called a virgate stem, caulis virgatus, differs only in being … more rigid.
1846. Dana, Zooph. (1848), 652. Branchlets … long before branching, and virgate.
2. ‘Twiggy; producing many weak branchlets or twigs’ (Treas. Bot., 1866).
