English

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Etymology

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From New Latin, from Ancient Greek πυξίδιον (puxídion), diminutive of πῠξῐ́ς (puxís, box).

Noun

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pyxidium

pyxidium (plural pyxidia)

  1. (botany) A seed capsule in the form of a box, the seeds being released when the top splits off.
    • 1979, Organization for Flora Neotropica, New York Botanical Garden, Flora Neotropica: Issue 21, Part 1, p. 221:
      Key to Species of Cariniana Inflorescence predominantly terminal and subterminal; pyxidium without teeth at line of opercular dehiscence.
    • 1924, Samuel James Record, Clayton Dissinger Mell, Timbers of Tropical America, page 467:
      The pyxidium has the trigonoidly cylindrical or obconical form of that of Couratari, but it is much thicker, heavier, and more solid in substance.
    • 1913, Georges Victor Legros, Fabre: Poet of Science, page 176:
      The capsule of gold−beater's skin, in which the grubs of the Cione are enclosed, divides itself, at the moment of liberation, into two hemispheres "of a regularity so perfect that they recall exactly the bursting of the pyxidium when the seed is distributed".
    • 1836, Asa Gray, Elements of Botany, page 221:
      A fruit of this kind is sometimes termed a pyxidium; that is, a little chest.

Translations

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