vegetable metamorphosis

1 definition found

vegetable metamorphosis - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Metamorphosis \Met`a*mor"pho*sis\, n.; pl. Metamorphoses. [L.,
     fr. Gr. ?, fr. ? to be transformed; meta` beyond, over +
     morfh` form.]
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     1. Change of form, or structure; transformation.
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     2. (Biol.) A change in the form or function of a living
        organism, by a natural process of growth or development;
        as, the metamorphosis of the yolk into the embryo, of a
        tadpole into a frog, or of a bud into a blossom.
        Especially, that form of sexual reproduction in which an
        embryo undergoes a series of marked changes of external
        form, as the chrysalis stage, pupa stage, etc., in
        insects. In these intermediate stages sexual reproduction
        is usually impossible, but they ultimately pass into final
        and sexually developed forms, from the union of which
        organisms are produced which pass through the same cycle
        of changes. See Transformation.
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     3. (Physiol.) The change of material of one kind into another
        through the agency of the living organism; metabolism.
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     Vegetable metamorphosis (Bot.), the doctrine that flowers
        are homologous with leaf buds, and that the floral organs
        are transformed leaves.
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