[L.; dim. of caput head.] A little head or knob.
1. Eccl. A short ‘lesson’ from Scripture.
1753. in Chambers, Cycl. Supp.
1885. M’Crie, Sketches & Stud., 29. The last page of the capitula of St. John’s Gospel.
2. Phys. ‘A protuberance of bone received into a hollow portion of another bone’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.).
1755. in Chambers, Cycl. Supp.
1881. Mivart, Cat, 37. They articulate with the heads, or the capitula, of the ribs.
3. Bot. ‘A close head of sessile flowers. Also a term vaguely applied among fungals to the receptacle, pilens, or peridium’ (Treas. Bot.).
1721–1800. Bailey, Capitulum (among Botanists) is the Head or Flowring Top of any Plant.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 106. The neutral florets … being quite open in very many capitula.
1861. S. Thomson, Wild Flowers, I. (ed. 4), 91. The flower-head or capitulum of such a plant as the daisy.
4. Zool. The body of a barnacle together with the case containing it; so called from its forming a head to the peduncle or foot-stalk.
1872. H. A. Nicholson, Palæont., 152. At its free extremity the peduncle bears the ‘capitulum.’
