phytonn.

1846 J. Hudson in Rep. & Papers Bot. (Ray Soc.) 305 How does it happen that a cell is so vitalized as to be able to produce a phyton?

1848 E. Forbes Naked-eyed Medusæ 88 The several phytons comprising the first bud or plumule.

1854 J. H. Balfour Outl. Bot. i. iii. 267 The dicotyledonous embryo then is composed of two leaves or two unifoliar phytons..united together so as to form one axis.

1898 L. H. Bailey Lessons with Plants lxxiii. 380 The propagation-unit in vegetative multiplication is the smallest part of root, stem or leaf which will grow when severed from the parent (although this is not a morphological or structural unit in the plant-body); and, for the purpose of terminology, this part may be called a phyton.

1938 Biol. Rev. 13 90 A leaf and the part of the stem which bears it together form a growth unit, a so-called phyton.

1951 R. C. McLean & W. R. Ivimey-Cook Textbk. Theoret. Bot. I. xvi. 653 This was the original ‘phyton’ theory of Gaudichaud, who regarded the stem as being longitudinally segmented into phytons.

1991 A. D. Bell Plant Form (1993) ii. 282/3 A phyton is a unit of construction representing a leaf and its node of insertion plus that portion of stem proximal to the node into which the leaf has its vascular connections.