a. [f. as if ad. L. *axīl-is, f. axis; cf. L. civīlis, hostīlis.] Belonging to the axis: a. Bot. Applied to an embryo having the same direction as the axis of the seed, or a placenta in the axis of the ovary.
1845. Lindley, Sch. Bot., i. (1858), 16. If it [the placenta] grows from a centre which is connected with the sides of the ovary by dissepiments … it is axile.
1870. Bentley, Bot., 342. The embryo is said to be axile, or axial when it has the same direction as the axis of the seed.
1870. Hooker, Stud. Flora, 314. Oxyria … embryo axile.
b. in Phys. Axile bodies: the touch corpuscles at the termination of the sensory nerves.
1859. Todd, Cycl. Anat. & Phys., V. 503/2. Kölliker … prefers to call these bodies, axile corpuscles.
1881. Mivart, Cat, 22.
