a. [ad. L. arborēscent-em, pr. pple. of arborēsc-ĕre: see ARBORESCE and -ENT.]

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  1.  Tree-like in growth; approaching the size of a tree, or having a woody stem.

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1675.  Grew, Anat. Trunks, i. § 32. Examples of Trees or Arborescent Plants.

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1845.  Darwin, Voy. Nat., xi. 244. An arborescent grass, very like a bamboo.

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1859.  Tennent, Ceylon, II. IX. vii. 553. Coco-nut palms and arborescent mimosas.

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  † 2.  Tree-like in general appearance, or in the arrangement of parts; branching like a tree.

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1679.  Phil. Collect., XII. 6. A Clift all interwoven with Arborescent Marchasites.

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1766.  Pennant, Brit. Zool., VI. 67 (Jod.). Asterias arborescent with five rays.

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1775.  Ellis, in Phil. Trans., LXVI. 17. The arborescent figures of the Cornish native copper.

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1881.  Mivart, Cat, 233. An arborescent network of veins.

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  b.  in Arch. (See quot.)

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1849.  Freeman, Archit., 260. Not growing out of their support as in the arborescent Gothic.

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1851.  Ruskin, Stones Ven., I. xxi. § 27. All good ornamentation is thus arborescent, as it were, one class of it branching out of another and sustained by it.

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  c.  fig. Manifoldly branching.

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1867.  E. F. Burr, Ecce Cœlum, vi. 167–8. Nature instead of saying that there is no God whose unity is arborescent with endless varieties of beauty and power, significantly asks, ‘Is there not such a Being?’

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