Bot. [f. mod.L. Thallophyta, pl. f. Gr. θαλλό-ς green twig + φυτόν plant.] A plant belonging to the lowest of the great groups in the vegetable kingdom, comprising those of which the vegetative body is a thallus, including Algæ, Fungi, and Lichens; a cellular cryptogam; = Lindley’s THALLOGEN.
1854. Balfour, in Encycl. Brit. (ed. 8), V. 142/2. These tribes, from having no foliaceous axis but simply a cellular expansion, have been called Thallogeus or Thallophytes.
1875. Bennett & Dyer, trans. Sachs’ Bot., 207. Thallophyles. Under this term are comprised Algæ and Fungi (Lichens being also included in the latter section).
1885. Goodale, Physiol. Bot. (1892), 164.
Hence Thallophytic a. Bot., of or pertaining to the thallophytes.
1891. in Cent. Dict.
