† surfoiln.
Botany. Obsolete. rare.
In the terminology of Nehemiah Grew: a structure serving to cover and protect the leaves, as a scale on a bud or a cotyledon.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > part of plant > leaf > bract, scale, palea, or spathe > [noun]
huskc1400
hosea1450
pannicle1672
surfoil1672
squama1738
palea1753
spatha1753
pelt1759
pelta1760
spath1763
bract1771
scale1776
spathe1785
scalelet1787
glume1789
ramentum1793
rament1813
paleola1829
bracteole1830
bractlet1835
glumelle1836
palea1836
pale1847
periphyll1858
bracket1860
glumella1861
glumellule1861
lodicule1864
bract-sheath1870
palet1871
palea1875
pale1890
prophyllum1890
hypsophyll1895
pale1900
prophyll1902
1672 N. Grew Anat. Veg. i. 34 The Plume in Corn is trussed up within a membranous Sheath; and that of a Bean, cooped up betwixt a pair of Surfoyls.
1672 N. Grew Anat. Veg. iv. 119 Every Bud, besides its proper Leaves, is covered with divers Leafy Pannicles or Surfoyls.
1723 W. Derham Physico-theol. (ed. 6) x. 407 We may add another noble Guard by the Interposition of Films, &c. of which Dr. Grew saith, there are about six Ways, viz. Leaves, Surfoils [ed. 5 (1720): surfoyls], Interfoils, Stalks, Hoods, and Mantlings.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2012; most recently modified version published online September 2020).
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n.1672