Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • A division of the higher cryptogams, including the Hepaticœ and mosses.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun plural See cryptogamia.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun A taxonomic division within the kingdom Plantae — the mosses.
  • proper noun botany, obsolete A botanical name at the rank of division or phylum including all the bryophytes (the mosses, liverworts, and hornworts).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a division of nonflowering plants characterized by rhizoids rather than true roots and having little or no organized vascular tissue and showing alternation of generations between gamete-bearing forms and spore-bearing forms; comprises true mosses (Bryopsida) and liverworts (Hepaticopsida) and hornworts (Anthoceropsida)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From New Latin, from Latin bryon ("moss"), from Ancient Greek βρύον (bruon, "tree-moss, oyster-green"), from βρύω (bruo, "be full to bursting, abound") + New Latin -phyta

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