[a. F. spicule, or anglicizing of SPICULA, SPICULUM.]
1. Bot. a. A floral spikelet (cf. SPICULA 3). b. (See quot. 1855.)
1785. Martyn, Lett. Bot., xiii. (1794), 136. Spicules triangular. [Note] These are the little assemblages of flowers, or ultimate subdivisions of the panicle or whole. Ibid., 137. The spicules are ovate, and on short foot-stalks.
1855. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., I. 5. Spicules, two little wing-like pieces often seen at the base of the leafstalk, as in the Rose.
2. One or other of the points of the basidia or sporophores in fungals.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXV. 183/2. The hymenium [of Exidia glandulosa] is covered with spicules.
1866. Treas. Bot., 1088/2. In such Fungi as agarics the sporophores … bear generally four little points called spicules,… on which the spores are seated. In Tremella the sporophores are globular or quadripartite, the spicules being drawn out into long threads.
1875. Cooke, Fungi, 22. With which also their structure agrees, excepting in the development of spicules.
3. In sponges: = SPICULUM 3.
1846. Dana, Zooph. (1848), 645. The cortex … shows numerous minute granules or spicules of lime, disseminated through it.
1860. Maury, Phys. Geog. Sea, xiv. 616, note. A considerable number of silicious spicules of sponges.
1885. J. E. Taylor, Brit. Fossils, i. 9. When alive the outer layer of ‘sponge-flesh’ is usually permeated with myriads of exceedingly small solid bodies, called fibres and spicules.
attrib. 1887. Sollas, in Encycl. Brit., XXII. 416/1. A thin layer of organic matter, known as the spicule sheath, forms an outer investment to the spicule.
4. Zool. A needle-like or sharp-pointed process or part.
1861. J. R. Greene, Man. Anim. Kingd., Cœlent., 160. In some species of Alcyonidæ proper, the spicules attain a comparatively large size.
1872. H. A. Nicholson, Palæont., 66. All the Radiolaria possess hard structures in the form of siliceous spicules or a siliceous test.
1890. Science-Gossip, XXVI. 198. The ovate individuals … showed the mouth or osculum fringed with spicules standing erect.
5. A fine-pointed piece, splinter or fragment of some hard substance; a spicula or spiculum.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 62. Each star has an icy centre as a nucleus, from which six little spicules or rods of ice are shot forth at regular angles.
1879. Khory, Digest Med., 37. Under the microscope granular matter, and spheres with spicules sticking on them, are seen.
1895. Hoffmann, Begin. Writing, 37. A small bundle of needles, spicules of bone, or fish spines.
