[UN-1 9.]
1. Of trees or plants, their stems, etc.: Not furnished with branches.
1665. Rea, Flora, 96. The Lily Asphodells flower in the end of May;… the unbranched kind is the first and the branched the last.
1731. Miller, Gard. Dict., s.v. Palma, The Palm-Tree … hath a single unbranch’d Stalk.
1753. Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl. s.v. Filix, The unbranched, dentated fern.
1855. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl. (1861), V. 314. Unbranched Upright Bur-reed.
1897. Mary Kingsley, W. Africa, 464. A great hard wood forest tree, which has a tall unbranched stem, terminating in a crown of branches.
2. Not divided into branches; having no ramifications. Chiefly Bot. and Zool.
1796. Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), III. 755. Leaves generally unbranched.
1847. W. E. Steele, Field Bot., 171. Leaves with unbranched, mostly parallel ribs.
1857. T. Moore, Handbk. Brit. Ferns (ed. 3), 58. The veins, which are alternate, mostly unbranched, and extending to the margin.
1875. Huxley & Martin, Elem. Biol. (1877), 37. A bud-like process is thrown out, which, usually, grows only into a very short unbranched hypha.
