Also 8–9 verticel. [ad. L. verticill-us VERTICILLUS. Cf. F. verticille in sense 2 (also, in earlier use, a whorl).]
† 1. (See quot.). Obs.–1
1703. A. de La Prime, Lett. to Sir H. Sloan (Sloan MSS. 4056), fol. 33. Verticels or glass Beads formed on purpose to wind thread on.
2. Bot. A number or set of organs or parts arranged, disposed or produced in a circle round an axis (see quot. 1882); a whorl. False or spurious verticil, a verticillaster.
Also similarly in Zool. (in recent Dicts.).
α. 1793. Martyn, Dict. Bot., s.v., A Verticil or Whirl may be 1. Sessile or peduncled. 2. Naked…. 3. Crowded.
1806. J. Galpine, Brit. Bot., § 258. Ajuga.… Hairy: verticils crowded into a pyramidal form, many-flowered.
1826–34. Encycl. Metrop. (1845), VII. 43/2. The stamens in the same verticil are sometimes joined together, and sometimes with the neighbouring verticils.
1882. Vines, Sachs’ Bot., 170. An axial structure may produce either several equivalent lateral members at the same level, or only one; in the second case the members formed in succession are termed solitary, in the first case a Whorl or Verticil.
β. 1856. Henslow, Dict. Bot. Terms, 214. Verticel, Verticillus,… a whorl.
1872. Nicholson, Palæont., 483. The joints of the stems give off verticels of leaves.
1881. Spencer, in Science Gossip, No. 202. 229. It is generally supposed that the branches were also arranged in verticels.
