Pl. ungues. [L. unguis nail, claw, etc.]
† 1. = UNGULA 2. Obs.
1693. [see UNGULA 2].
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Pannus, The Pannus is an Excrescence … less hard and membranous than the Unguis.
2. Bot. The narrow part of a petal, by which it is attached to the receptacle.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., In preparing of Medicines, the Ungues … are pull’d off the Flowers.
1760. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., I. iii. (1765), 7. Each Petal consists of Unguis, a Claw, which is the lower Part fastened to the Base.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 284. The inner segments of the perianthium being petaloid, with the stamens proceeding from the top of their ungues.
1879. A. Gray, Struct. Bot., vi. § 4. 245. The expanded portion of a petal … is the Lamina or Blade; any much contracted base is the Unguis or Claw.
† 3. A claw-shaped obstetrical instrument. Obs.–1
1752. Smellie, Midwif., Introd. p. xii. [Hippocrates] directs us to introduce the hand,… dividing the parts with an unguis fixed on the great finger.
4. Zool., etc. A nail or claw.
c. 1790. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), VI, 680/1. Tarsus, or foot … Unguis, or claw.
1819. Macleay, Horæ Entomol., I. 66. The size of their tarsi and ungues, and their comparatively small pectus.
1840. Cuvier’s Anim. Kingd., 526. Dasyus … has the ungues of the two fore-feet … bifid, the others entire.
1884. Coues, N. Amer. Birds, 102. There it is always terminated by a hard, horny, unguis or ‘nail,’ more or less distinct.
