The Collaborative International Dictionary
Orthospermous \Or`tho*sper"mous\, a. [Ortho- + Gr. ? seed.]
(Bot.)
Having the seeds straight, as in the fruits of some
umbelliferous plants; -- opposed to c[oe]lospermous.
--Darwin.
Wiktionary
a. (context botany English) Having the seeds straight, as in the fruits of some umbelliferous plants.
Usage examples of "orthospermous".
But in regard to the differences both in the internal and external structure of the seeds, which are not always correlated with any differences in the flowers, it seems impossible that they can be in any way advantageous to the plant: yet in the Umbelliferae these differences are of such apparent importance--the seeds being in some cases, according to Tausch, orthospermous in the exterior flowers and coelospermous in the central flowers,--that the elder De Candolle founded his main divisions of the order on analogous differences.
But in regard to the differences both in the internal and external structure of the seeds, which are not always correlated with any differences in the flowers, it seems impossible that they can be in any way advantageous to the plant: yet in the Umbelliferae these differences are of such apparent importance -- the seeds being in some cases, according to Tausch, orthospermous in the exterior flowers and coelospermous in the central flowers, -- that the elder De Candolle founded his main divisions of the order on analogous differences.