welwitschIa (or was v)

[Named from its discoverer, Dr. Welwitsch, an African explorer, who died in 1872.] Bot.: A genus of Gnetacee, with but one known species, Welwitschia mirabilis . It rises from the sand in which it grows, putting forth two cotyledonary leaves, which ultimately become about six feet long, or rather more, coriaceous and ragged. No other leaves follow, but the connecting stem increases horizontally both above and below the insertion of the leaves, which it clasps in a marginal slit or cavity. From the upper side of the stem at the base of the leaves there are annually developed several dichotomous stems six Welwitschia Mirabilis. inches to a foot high, articulated, and with two small opposite scales at each joint, the several branches terminated by oblong cones. These contain two kinds of flowers, one hermaphrodite and the other female, with naked ovules. To a certain extent the plant connects Gymnosperms with Angiosperms. It grows in sandy deserts in Africa between 14-23° S., and attains a great age; some specimens being estimated as at least one hundred years old. *wěm (1), *wem me, s . [A. S. wem , wam , wamm.] A spot, a scar, a fault, a blemish. "That thou kepe the comm an dement without wemте." -Wycliffe : 1 Timothy vi. IMG:content-0793.png:[blocks in formation] Chaucer: C. Т. , 15,516. *wemmed, *wembde, a. [Eng. wem (1), s.; -ed.] Spotted, marked with spots or blemishes. "The verie crounes and scepters of best monarks, and princes had bene rustie, wembde, and warpde with obliu ion."- Drant: Horace; Arte of Poetrie. (Dedic.)