Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A nodding or inclining round about; specifically, in botany, the continuous motion of some part of a plant, as the apex of the stem, a tendril, etc., in which it describes irregular elliptical or circular figures.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Bot.) The successive bowing or bending in different directions of the growing tip of the stems of many plants, especially seen in climbing plants.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun botany The successive
bowing orbending in different directions of the growing tip of thestem of manyplants , especially seen in climbing plants.
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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The changes of position of leaves and of climbing plants, and the sleep of leaves are all brought under this great principle of circumnutation.
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I hope that you will not have upset my fundamental notion that various classes of movement result from the modification of a universally present movement of circumnutation.
More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 2 Charles Darwin 1845
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The present letter is interesting in referring to F.itz Muller's observations on the "revolving nutation," or circumnutation of Alisma macrophylla and Linum usitatissimum, the latter fact having been discovered by F. Muller's daughter Rosa.
More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 2 Charles Darwin 1845
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This was probably the earliest observation on the circumnutation of a non-climbing plant, and Muller, in a paper dated 1868, and published in
More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 2 Charles Darwin 1845
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This I proved to be the case; and I was further led to a rather wide generalisation, viz. that the great and important classes of movements, excited by light, the attraction of gravity, etc., are all modified forms of the fundamental movement of circumnutation.
The Autobiography of Charles Darwin Charles Darwin 1845
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If so, the facts on circumnutation must have been communicated to Darwin some years before their publication in the "Jenaische Zeitschrift.")
More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 2 Charles Darwin 1845
hernesheir commented on the word circumnutation
One of Charles Darwin's many gleanings resulting from careful and detailed observation over time.
December 16, 2010