| 释义 |
seedling, n. and a.|ˈsiːdlɪŋ|
[f. seed n. + -ling1.]
A. n.
1. A young plant developed from a seed, esp. one raised from seed as distinct from a slip, cutting, etc.
1660Sharrock Vegetables 9 Divers..persons affirm, that they have seen the small Plants, or Seedlings at a distance all round the Mother-plant. 1664Evelyn Kal. Hort., Nov. 79 Prepare also Mattresses, Boxes, Cases, Pots, &c. for shelter to your tender Plants and Seedlings newly sown. 1672Grew Anat. Plants, Anat. Roots i. i. (1682) 59 The Roots of most Seedlings grow Downward and Upward, or shoot out in length at both Ends, at the same time. 1723P. Blair Pharmaco-Bot. i. 7 The Seedlings (as they are called, viz.) such as have naturally sprung forth from their Seeds, accidentally dispers'd. 1791Cowper Yardley Oak 61 Through all the stages thou hast push'd Of treeship—first a seedling hid in grass; Then twig; then sapling. 1859Darwin Orig. Spec. i. (1873) 22 This amount of change may have suddenly arisen in a seedling. 1882Vines tr. Sachs' Bot. 508 The terminal bud of the stem of the seedling grows more rapidly..than the lateral shoots which arise subsequently.
fig.1760Gray Let. to Wharton 22 June, The prophetic eye of taste..when it plants a seedling, already sits under the shadow of it. 1860Motley Netherl. ii. I. 27 It was thought indispensable to execute as traitors those Roman seedlings—seminary priests and their disciples—who [etc.].
†2. The young of an animal hatched from an egg resembling a seed in appearance. Obs.
1705Beverley Hist. Virginia iv. xix. (1722) 268 They [sc. Ticks] produce a kind of Egg, which lies about a Fort⁓night before the Seedlings are hatch'd. 1754Brander in Phil. Trans. XLVIII. 808 In the spring..a thousand small fish appear in the water to one grown to maturity, or seedlings on the shores of shell-fish, to one at full growth.
3. A small seed. In quots. fig.
1809Malkin Gil Blas x. i. ⁋3 Whether any seedlings of ambition were scattered among the fallows of your philosophy. 1876Hardy Ethelberta vi, Not a kiss—not so much as the shadow, hint, or merest seedling of a kiss.
4. attrib. and Comb., as seedling-bed, seedling-stock; seedling blight, a disease of seedlings, esp. a seedborne, sometimes fatal disease of flax that affects esp. seedlings and is caused by the fungus Colletotrichum lini; seedling leaf = seed-leaf, a cotyledon.
1757J. Hill Eden 167 And let him..take off the Mats.. from..his *Seedling Beds. 1763Mills Syst. Pract. Husb. IV. 179 If they are transplanted directly from the seedling⁓bed.
1919Pethybridge & Lafferty in Jrnl. Dept. Agric. & Technical Instr. Ireland XX. 327 It is usually not recognised in the brairding crop until the seedlings are one or two inches high... It is during these early stages that the disease causes most damage, and it is for this reason that we have proposed the name ‘*Seedling-blight’ for it, although the trouble is not entirely confined to plants in the seedling stage. 1980F. Hope Recognition & Control of Pests & Dis. Farm Crops (ed. 2) 159/1 Seedling Blight Colletotrichum lini can be a destructive disease of flax seedlings.
1771G. White Selborne, Let. to Pennant 30 Mar., The insect that infests turnips..(destroying often whole fields in their *seedling leaves).
1664Evelyn Kal. Hort., Aug. (1699) 102 Inoculate..at the commencement of this Month, upon *seedling Stocks of four Years growth.
B. adj. [From the appositive uses of the n.]
1. Developed or raised from seed.
1693Evelyn De La Quint. Compl. Gard. Dict., A Seedling Orange-Tree. 1707Mortimer Husb. (1721) II. 384 Remove Seedling Digitalis, and plant the Slips of Lychnis. 1786Abercrombie Gard. Assist. 215 Seedling biennials and perennials, raised from seed this year. 1808J. Walker Hist. Hebrides & Highl. Scot. II. 229 The seedling firs are to be had in great quantities in the natural woods in the north. 1825Greenhouse Comp. I. 229 A seedling lemon or orange of a year old being procured as a stock. 1884Browning Ferishtah 83 Some five pippins from the seedling tree.
fig.1810Scott Lady of L. ii. xx, O that some seedling gem Worthy such noble stem, Honour'd and bless'd in their shadow might grow.
2. Of the nature of a small seed; existing in a rudimentary state. In quots. fig.
1886Ruskin Præterita I. x. 332 He saw that I..had some seedling brains which would come up in time. 1891Lecky Poems 105 Some Scattered seedling thoughts that flew Farther than their authors knew.
3. Of oysters: Hatched from ‘seed’.
1862Ansted Channel Isl. iv. xxii. (ed. 2) 509 note, Luxuriant branches, to which the seedling oyster may become attached. |