noun
definition
An ornamental plant.
adjective
definition
Serving as an ornament; having no purpose other than to make more beautiful.
example
Some think it most ornamental to wear their bracelets on their wrists; others, about their ankles.
synonyms
definition
(of a plant, fish, etc.) Bred for aesthetic or decorative purposes.
Examples of ornamental in a Sentence
As garden plants the aconites are very ornamental, hardy perennials.
This is printed on an ornamental title-page.
It is well engraved in Richardson's Studies of Ornamental Design.
Many of the ornamental processes which we admire in Venetian glass were already in use in this century.
Coloured and ornamental glass held among them much the same place for table services, vessels for toilet use and the like, as that held among us by porcelain.
Behind it was a windy pedestrian plaza with an ornamental pool and a fountain.
Species of Ipomaea (morning glory), Convolvulus and Calystegia are cultivated as ornamental plants.
There were paths through these gardens, and over some of the brooks were ornamental glass bridges.
Pottery is manufactured on a small scale; ornamental carvings are made in Maltese stone and exported to a limited extent.
They are much cultivated as ornamental plants, especially in public buildings and gardens, for their stiff, rugged habit.
As garden plants the Phyllocacti are amongst the most ornamental of the whole family, being of easy culture, free blooming and remarkably showy, the colour of the flowers ranging from rich crimson, through rosepink to creamy white.
These properties are most highly developed in the substance known as jet, which is a variety of cannel found in the lower oolitic strata of Yorkshire, and is almost entirely used for ornamental purposes, the whole quantity produced near Whitby, together with a further supply from Spain, being manufactured into articles of jewellery at that town.
It was afterwards, with various changes, adopted in all succeeding styles of architecture as a basis of ornamental decoration.
One Oriental species (Sciurus caniceps) presents almost the only known instance among mammals of the assumption during the breeding season of a distinctly ornamental coat, corresponding to the breeding plumage of birds.
To the east is the Schlossteich, a long narrow ornamental lake covering 12 acres.
The state has made great advances, too, in the production of flowers, ornamental plants, nursery products, fruits, vegetables, poultry and eggs.
Assiut is famous for its red and black pottery and for ornamental wood and ivory work, which find a ready market all over Egypt.
On account of their regular form they have been used, threaded on wire, for making ornamental baskets.
Under this system the plan of 1848 was carried out more completely, every department of state being placed under one or other of the ministries in Paris, whilst the governorgeneral became little more than an ornamental personage.
This appendage is merely a fold of the skin, ornamental and sexual; it has no cavity in its interior, and has no communication with the mouth or with the respiratory organs; it is supported by the posterior horns of the hyoid bone, and can be erected and spread at the will of the animal.
Betel nuts have been used by turners for ornamental purposes, and for coat buttons on account of the beauty of their structure.
In England the tree grows well in warm situations, but suffers much in severe winters - its graceful form rendering it ornamental in the park or garden, where it sometimes grows 30 or 40 ft.
On one side of the inner court, to which a finely ornamental doorway gives access, is a large hall with a vaulted ceiling of stone, 20 ft.
Zanesville is an important centre for tha manufacture of art and domestic pottery, plain and ornamental tile, building and paving bricks, and other clay products.
At Blacksod Bay the granite has been quarried as an ornamental stone.
The smaller.specimens are quite plain, but the larger ones are gilt and generally of a highly ornamental character.
Its houses are of the usual central American type, constructed of adobe, rarely more than one storey high, and surrounded by courtyards with ornamental gateways.
Limestones and dolomites suitable for building purposes are obtained chiefly in Montgomery, Chester and Lancaster counties, and even these are generally rejected for ornamental work on account of their colour, which is usually bluish, grey or mottled.
The Landza of Nepal, however, is certainly not the origin of the Tibetan letter, but rather an ornamental development of the parent letter.
There are Armenian and Catholic churches, but the most beautiful building is a medresse erected in the 12th century by the Seljuks, with ornamental doorway and two graceful minarets known as the Chifte Minare.
The young lack the ornamental plume, and in them the head and neck are clothed with short black feathers, while the bill is yellow.
A considerable portion of the north wall is usually covered in front with the glazed structures called forcing-houses, and to these the houses for ornamental plants are sometimes attached; but a more appropriate site for the latter is the flower garden, when that forms a separate department.
For the latter walls are much more convenient and suitable than a boarded fence, but in general these are too low to be of much value as aids to cultivation, and they are best covered with bush fruits or with ornamental plants of limited growth.
These include all those structures which are more intimately associated with the growth of ornamental plants and flowers, and comprise conservatory, plant stove, greenhouse and the subsidiary pits and frames.
They are best, nevertheless, when grapes and ornamental plants are grown in the same house, except, indeed, in very wet and cold districts, where, in consequence of its greater warmth, the lean-to is to be preferred.
Somewhat heavy loam y are best for potting pine apples, for melons and strawberries, fruit trees in pots, &c., and may be used with the addition of manures only; but for ornamental plants a loam of a somewhat freer texture is preferable and more pleasant to work.
It any state most plants feed greedily upon it, and when pure or free from decaying wood or sticks it is a very safe ingredient in composts; but it is so liable to generate fungus, and the mycelium or spawn of certain fungi is so injurious to the roots of trees, attacking them if at all sickly or weakened by drought, that many cultivators prefer not' to mix leaf-mould with the soil used for permanent plants, as peaches or choice ornamental trees.
It is perhaps of most importance as the principal means of propagating our hardy kinds of fruit, especially the apple and the pear; but the process is the same with most other fruits and ornamental hardy trees and shrubs that are thus propagated.
In transplanting trees of the ornamental class, less need be attempted in respect to providing new soil, although the soil should be made as congenial as practicable.
Nowadays, however, quite large trees, chiefly of an ornamental character, and perhaps weighing several tons, are lifted with a large ball of soil attached to the roots, by means of a special tree-lifting machine, and are readily transferred from one part of the garden to another, or even for a distance of several miles, without serious injury.
When plants are required to stand in ornamental china pots or vases, it is better, both for the plants and for avoiding risk of breakage, to grow them in ordinary garden pots of a size that will drop into the more valuable vessels.
To obviate this defect, it has been recommended that ornamental plants should be formed into four or five separate suites of flowering, to be distributed over the garden.
Hardy bulbs of the garlic family, some species of which are ornamental; the inflorescence is umbellate.
A very large family of autumn-blooming composites, including some ornamental species, all of the easiest culture.
There are many very ornamental kinds.
P. alpinum, 6 in., white with yellow centre; P. nudicaule, i ft., yellow, scented, and P. pilosum, i to 2 ft., deep orange, are ornamental smaller kinds.
Ornamental strong-growing perennials requiring much space.
P. Parthenium eximium, 2 ft., is a handsome double white form of ornamental character for the mixed border; P. uliginosum, 5 to 6 ft., has fine large, white, radiate flowers in October; P. Tchihatchewii, a close-growing, dense evergreen, creeping species, with long-stalked, white flower-heads, is adapted for covering slopes in lieu of turf, and for rockwork.
Distinct liliaceous plants with bold ornamental leaves regularly folded and plaited.
The Speedwell family, containing many ornamental members; all the hardy species are of the easiest cultivation in ordinary garden soil.