[ad. F. utricule (18th c.), or L. ūtriculus UTRICULUS1.]
1. Bot. A small sac or bladder-shaped body; a bottle-shaped part or structure.
Primordial utricle: see PRIMORDIAL a. 4 b.
a. 1731. Miller, Gard. Dict., s.v. Sap, All Male Flowers that have Utricles at the Bottom of the Petala.
1793. Martyn, Lang. Bot., s.v. Vessels, Utricles, or little Bags; usually full of a green pulp.
1816. Keith, Phys. Bot., I. 349. The structure of the utricles of the tree is also said to be different from that of the utricles of the herb.
1875. Darwin, Insectiv. Pl., xvii. 419. The spherical glands were still white but their utricles were broken up.
b. 1826–34. Encycl. Metrop. (1845), VII. 50/1. An utricle is a membranous, elastic pericarp.
1861. Bentley, Man. Bot., 314. The Utricle is a superior, one-celled, one or few-seeded fruit.
c. 1849. [see PRIMORDIAL a. 4 b].
1857. Henfrey, Elem. Course Bot., 495. The primordial utricle is a layer of substance of a dense mucilaginous consistence…, applied intimately to the inner surface of the cell membrane of young cells [etc.].
1875. Bennett & Dyer, Sach’s Bot., 62. The hydrostatic pressure which the vacuole-fluid exercises on the protoplasm [1882 primordial] utricle.
d. 1858. Irvine, British Pl., 240. The Carex Tribe…. Fruit without hairs at the base, enclosed in a peculiar envelope (utricle).
1897. Willis, Flower. Pl., II. 126. The axil of a second glume (the utricle) which closely enwraps it.
e. 1874. Cooke, Fungi, 49. After the spores have become ripe, the free point of the utricle bursts.
f. 1875. Darwin, Insectiv. Plants, xviii. 451. Found within the utricle or neck of one leaf.
2. Anat. and Biol. A small cell, sac, or bladder-like process.
1822. Good, Study Med., IV. 603. Those utricles, or minute bladders of the cuticle containing a watery fluid.
1836–9. Todd, Cycl. Anat., II. 413/2. Utricles foating loosely in the abdominal cavity.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 905. Microbacillus of the ‘peladic utricle.’
b. The larger of the two sacs in the membranous labyrinth of the ear.
1837. Penny Cycl., IX. 239/1. The utricle, or sinus of the vestibule [in birds].
1857. Holden, Hum. Osteol. (ed. 2), 252. The utricle occupies the upper half of the vestibule.
1886. Buck’s Handbk. Med. Sci., II. 563/2. The vestibular membranous labyrinth is divided into sacs: (1) the oblong utricle or … common sinus [etc.].
3. gen. A small bladder-like body; a globule.
1858. Graham & Watts, Elem. Chem. (ed. 2), II. 681. Vapour of sulphur, when it comes in contact with cold bodies, condenses in the form of utricles, that is to say, of globules composed of a soft external pellicle filled with liquid sulphur…. This utricular condition has also been observed in selenium.
