Word Finder - whorls

definition

A pattern of concentric circles.

definition

A circle of three or more leaves, flowers, or other organs, about the same part or joint of a stem.

definition

A volution, or turn, of the spire of a univalve shell.

definition

Any volution, as for example in the human ear or fingerprint.

definition

A flywheel, a weight attached to a spindle.

In Cycas whorls of scales alternate with large pinnate leaves.

There are con siderable irregularities, how ever, in this respect, and the number of leaves in different whorls is not always uniform, as may be seen in Lysimachia

The female flower is a small bud-like cone situated at the apex of a small branch, and consists of two or three whorls of two or three scales.

Of these whorls the two internal, forming the sporophylls, constitute the essential organs of reproduction; the two outer whorls are the protective coverings or floral envelopes.

In this way are formed the familiar feathery colonies of Plumularia, in which the pinnules are all in one plane, while in the allied Antennularia the pinnules are arranged in whorls round the main biserial stem.

Animal fixed by the shell, the last whorls of which are not in contact with each other; foot small; two anterior pedal tentacles.

Another explanation is based on the late appearance of the petals in the floral development and their origin from the backs of the primordia of the stamens; it is then assumed that three alternating whorls only are present, namely, sepals, stamens bearing petal-like dorsal outgrowths, and carpels.

In plants, as Nymphaea alba, where a spiral arrangement of the floral leaves occurs, it is not easy to say where the calyx ends and the corolla begins, as these two whorls pass insensibly into each other.

Club-shaped hydranths with numerous tentacles, generally scattered irregularly, sometimes with a spiral arrangement, or in whorls (" verticillate ").

Trophosome, polyps with two whorls of tentacles, the lower filiform, the upper capitate; gonosome, free medusae, with tentacles solid and branched.

Corymorphidae (including the medusa-family Hybocodonidae).--, Trophosome solitary polyps, with two whorls of tentacles; gonosome, free medusae or gonophores.

Under favourable conditions of growth it is a lofty tree, with a nearly straight, tapering trunk, throwing out in somewhat irregular whorls its widespreading branches, densely clothed with dark, clear green foliage.

The upper whorls of the shell are seen to be divided into separate chambers by the formation of successively formed " septa."

In Paludina the whorls of the spiral are very prominent; the genus is viviparous.

The structure of the flower represents the simple type of monocotyledons, consisting of two whorls of petals, of three free parts each, six free stamens, and a consolidated pistil of three carpels, ripening into a three-valved capsule containing many winged seeds.

Their scales are mixed with larger prominent spines, which in some species are particularly developed on the tail, and disposed in whorls.

The body is uniformly covered with granular scales, whilst the short, strong tail is armed with powerful spines disposed in whorls.

There is no satisfactory explanation of this break in the regular alternation of successive whorls; the outer whorl' of stamens arises in course of development before the inner, so that there is no question of subsequent displacement.

Sphenophyllum was a slender climbing plant with whorls of leaves, which was probably related both to the calamites and the lycopods.

The flower has in rare cases a perianth of six scale-like leaves arranged in two whorls, and thus conforming to the common monocotyledonous type of flower.

In a few cases two whorls of stamens are present, with three members in each, but generally only three are present; the pistil consists of three or two carpels, united to form an ovary bearing a corresponding number of styles and containing one ovule.

The numerous male catkins are generally arranged in dense whorls around the bases of the young shoots; the anther-scales, surmounted by a crest-like appendage, shed their abundant pollen by longitudinal slits; the two ovules at the base of the inner side of each fertile cone-scale develop into a pair of winged seeds, which drop from the opening scales when mature - as in the allied genera.

The leaves are rather short, curved, and often twisted; the male catkins, in dense cylindrical whorls, fill the air of the forest with their sulphur-like pollen in May or June, and fecundate the purple female flowers, which, at first sessile and erect, then become recurved on a lengthening stalk; the ovate cones, about the length of the leaves, do not reach maturity until the autumn of the following year, and the seeds are seldom scattered until the third spring; the cone-scales terminate in a pyramidal FIG.

P. Laricio, the Corsican pine, is one of the noblest trees of this group, growing to a height of too or even 150 ft., with a straight trunk and branches in regular whorls, forming in large trees a pyramidal head; the slender leaves, of a dark green tint, are from 4 to 7 in.

It is a straight-growing tree, with grey bark and whorls of horizontal branches giving a cylindro-conical outline; the leaves are short, rigid and glaucous; the cones, oblong and rather pointing upwards, grow only near the top of the tree, and ripen in the second autumn; the seeds are oily like those of P. Pinea, and are eaten both on the Alps and by the inhabitants of Siberia; a fine oil is expressed from them which is used both for food and in lamps, but, like that of the Italian pine, it soon turns rancid.

The Cupressineae have cones composed of a few scales arranged in alternate whorls; each scale bears two or more seeds, and shows no external sign of being composed of two distinct portions.

The spike of an inflorescence bears whorls of flowers at each node in the axils of concrescent bracts accompanied by numerous sterile hairs (paraphyses); in a male inflorescence numerous flowers occur at each node, while in a female inflorescence the number of flowers at each node is much smaller.

The leaves are usually articulated at the base, spreading, sharp-pointed and needle-like in form, destitute of oil-glands, and arranged in alternating whorls of three; but in some the leaves are minute and scale-like, closely adhering to the branches, the apex only being free, and furnished with an oil-gland on the back.

Whorls of hair, as on the face of the horse and the South American deer known as brockets, occur where the different hair-slopes meet.

The leaves are borne in whorls, those of each whorl cohering, except at their extreme tips, to form a sheath.

The leaves of successive whorls alternate with one another, and this applies also to the branches which arise in the axil of the leaf sheath.

Abnormal specimens of Equisetum in which the strobilus is interrupted by whorls of leaves are of interest for comparison with the fructification of Phyllotheca.

The leaves, which were of simple form (except in Archaeocalamites, where they forked), were inserted in whorls at the nodes; they were either free from one another or cohered by their bases into a sheath.

This similarity is closest in Archaeocalamites, an ancient type found in Upper Devonian rocks; in this the strobilus consists of peltate sporangiophores inserted in whorls on the axis.

In the other Calamarian strobili known the whorls of sporangiophores are separated by whorls of bracts.

In some the sporangiophores stood midway between the sterile whorls, while in others they approached the whorl above or below.

The cone of Sphenophyllum consisted of an axis bearing at the nodes whorls of bracts, united below into a sheath.

The Psilotaceae, however, differ from the Sphenophyllales in a number of definite features, such as the arrangement of the leaves singly and not in whorls, and the mode of branching.

It is a small, submerged plant with long, slender branching stems bearing whorls of narrow toothed leaves; the flowers appear at the surface when mature.

The flowers spring from, or are enclosed in, a spathe, and are unisexual and regular, with generally a calyx and corolla, each of three members; the stamens are in whorls of three, the inner whorls are often barren; the two to fifteen carpels form an inferior ovary containing generally numerous ovules on often large, produced, parietal placentas.

The termination of the peduncle, or the part on which the whorls of the flower are arranged, is called the thalamus, torus or receptacle.

So also in Labiatae, such as dead-nettle (Lamium), the different whorls of inflorescence are developed centripetally, while the florets of the verticillaster are centrifugal.

Usually the successive whorls of the flower, disposed from below upwards or from without inwards upon the floral axis, are of the same number of parts, or are a multiple of the same number of parts, those of one whorl alternating with those of the whorls next it.

Normally, the parts of successive whorls alternate; but in some cases we find the parts of one whorl opposite or superposed to those of the next whorl.

A flower is said to be symmetrical when each of its whorls consists of an equal number of parts, or when the parts of any one whorl are multiples of that preceding it.

Flowers in which the number of parts in each whorl is the same, are isomerous (of equal number); when the number in some of the whorls is different, the flower is anisomerous (of unequal number).

It frequently happens that when it is fully formed, the number of its parts is not in conformity with that of the other whorls.

In such circumstances, however, a flower has been called symmetrical, provided the parts of the other whorls are normal, - the permanent state of the pistil not being taken into account in determining symmetry.

A flower in which the parts are arranged in twos is called dimerous; when the parts of the whorls are three, four or five, the flower is trimerous, tetramerous or pentamerous, respectively.

Alteration in the symmetrical arrangement as well as in the completeness and regularity of flowers has been traced to suppression or the non-development of parts, degeneration or imperfect formation, cohesion or union of parts of the same whorl, adhesion or union of the parts of different whorls, multiplication of parts, and deduplication (sometimes called chorisis) or splitting of parts.