Pl. spadices and spadixes. [L. spādīx, a. Gr. σπάδιξ palm-branch, palm-colored. Cf. F. spadice.]
1. Bot. A form of inflorescence consisting of a thick fleshy spike, closely set with flowers, and enclosed in a spathe; a succulent spike, whether enclosed in a spathe or not.
1760. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., I. viii. (1765), 18. Spadix is the Receptacle of a Palm produced within a Spatha, or Sheath, on the Branches that bear Fruit.
1785. Martyn, Lett. on Bot., x. (1794), 107. All … growing upon a spadix. [Note.] The spadix is the receptacle in this tribe, and has no English name. Ibid. (1793), Lang. Bot., s.v. Spatha, The calyx of a spadix. Ibid. Some flowers which have no spadix.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 285. Flowers unisexual, arranged upon a naked spadix.
1847. W. E. Steele, Field Bot., 204. Sterile and fertile spadices cylindrical.
1871. Kingsley, At Last, vii. Round our feet are Arums, with snow-white spadixes and hoods.
1897. J. C. Willis, Flower. Plants & Ferns, II. 17. They are often so deceived as to lay their eggs on the spadix.
2. Zool. A part in cephalopods and hydrozoans having some analogy to a spadix in plants.
1871. Allman, Monogr. Gymnoblastic Hydroids, I. p. xv. Spadix,… the hollow body which projects from the floor of the sporosac into its cavity, and round which the generative elements are developed.
1877. Huxley, Anat. Inv. Anim., viii. 534. On the left side, the four tentacles of the posterior division … are converted into a peculiar organ termed the spadix.
1883. Encycl. Brit., XVI. 674/2. The spadix is in fact the hectocotylized portion of the fore-foot of the male Nautilus.
1888. Rolleston & Jackson, Anim. Life, 762. The term ‘spadix’ is applied to the central closed endodermic structure representing the manubrial cavity in a gonophore or sporosac.
