lignification

[Lat. lignum =wood, and facio to make, Fr. lignification. The act or proce of lignifying; the state of becoming lignified; 1; the state or proce of becoming converted into wood or a ligneous substance. lig'-ni-form, a . [Lat. lignum =wood, and form a =form, appearance; Fr. ligniforme.] Resembling wood; of the appearance of wood. lig-ni-fỹ, v. t. & i. [Lat. lignum =wood; Eng. suff.- fy; Fr.se lignifier.] A. Trans.: To convert or change into wood or a ligneous substance. B. In trans.: To become converted into wood. lig-nin, lig-nine, s. [Latin lign ( um ) =wood; -in ; -ine .] Chem.: A substance at one time considered to be allied to cellulose, but now regarded as identical with it. It is the form of cellulose which exists in the state of greatest aggregation, and is represented by woody fiber generally. [CELLULOSE.] lig-ni-per-do us, a . [Lat. lignum =wood; per do =to destroy, and Eng. adj. suff.- ous .] Destructive of wood. (Applied to certain insects.) lig-nite, s. [Mod. Lat. lignites; from lignum= wood, and suff. -ites ( Min.).] Min. & Geol.: Wood-coal; fo il-wood, generally of tertiary age, converted into a kind of coal. It is usually dull or brownish-black, and has not the glistening luster of carboniferous coal. Occasionally it is pitch black. As the name lignite implies, it, as a rule, retains the form and aspect of the original wood. It contains a larger proportion of hydrogen than wood does. If decomposition go on, it discharges carburetted hydrogen and becomes changed into common or bituminous coal. The plants constituting it are mostly exogens, and therefore more highly organized than the cryptogams of the carboniferous coal. [LIGNITIC.]