a. Bot. Also -ian. [f. mod.L. Volvocineæ, f. Volvoc-, VOLVOX.] Of or pertaining to the Volvocineæ, a family of microscopic confervaceous plants.
1885. E. R. Lankester, in Encycl. Brit., XIX. 836/1. Other Protozoa are known which are provided with chlorophyll corpuscles and … nourish themselves as do green plants. Such are the Volvocinean Flagellata and some of the Dinoflagellata.
1890. Nature, 6 Feb., 318/2. I have cited the two Volvocinean genera Pandorina and Volvox as examples of the differentiation of homoplastids into the lowest heteroplastids.
