Gymnosophy

The doctrine or practice of the Gymnospermous, a. ( Bot. ) Belonging to the ord. of plants consisting of gymnosperms. Gymnosperms, n . pl . [ Gr.gymnos , naked, and sper ma , seed.] ( Bot .) Flowering plants with naked seeds, that is, with ovules not inclosed in an ovary. They are so called in contradistinction to the Angiosperms, which have their seeds inclosed. In the arrangement followed in this work, the G. constitute a distinct cla called GYMNOGENS (q . v . ), while in other systems they constitute a division of the cla Dicotyledones .