cryptogamic

American  

[krip-tuh-gam-ik] / ˌkrɪp təˈgæm ɪk /

adjective

1. Botany. being a cryptogam or relating to or characteristic of cryptogams.

2. having or being a crustlike soil surface containing lichens, mosses, and other organic material.

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Example Sentences

For thousands of years men looked at the cryptogamic mold called Penicillium notatum, but Dr. Fleming was the first to see its cryptic meaning.

From Time Magazine Archive

For thousands of years men looked at the cryptogamic mold called Penicillium notatum, but Dr. Fleming was the first to see its meaning.

From Time Magazine Archive

Liverwort, any plant of the cryptogamic family Hepatic�, allied to mosses.—adj.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various

Some of the cryptogamic plants form considerable articles of commerce, particularly as food plants, affording gelatinous and amylaceous matter, and being useful in medicine and the arts.

From The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c. by Simmonds, P. L.

The variety of cryptogamic plants is very great--every rock, and the trunk of each tree, being covered with ferns, lichens, and mosses.

From Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, Commanded By the Late Captain Owen Stanley, R.N., F.R.S. Etc. During the Years 1846-1850. Including Discoveries and Surveys in New Guinea, the Louisiade Archipelago, Etc. to Which Is Added the Account of Mr. E.B. Kennedy's Expedition for the Exploration of the Cape York Peninsula. By John Macgillivray, F.R.G.S. Naturalist to the Expedition. — Volume 2 by MacGillivray, John