[L., small rod or twig, critical mark, dim. of virga twig, rod, wand, etc.]
1. Zool. A small rod-like growth or formation:
† a. One of the spines of a ray. Obs.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., b 5 b. They [sc. rays] take their prey, by hiding themselves in the mudde and putting out their virgulæ, and so alluring the small fishes, comming to them as weeds.
b. The rod-like axis of a graptolite.
1907. Fossil Invertebr. Anim. Brit. Mus., 47. The colony acquired a median supporting rod or virgula; this ended often in a disk.
2. † a. Virgula divina or divinatoria, a divining- or dowsing-rod. Obs.
1656. Cowley, Pindar. Odes, To Mr. Hobs, Note 28. Virgula Divina [see DIVINING vbl. sb. 2].
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric., vi. § 3. 80. It is the onely Plant for the Virgula Divina, for the discovery of Mines.
1674. Blount, Glossogr. (ed. 4), Virgula divinatoria, is a Rod of Hazel, wherewith Miners pretend to discover where the Ores of Metalls lie.
1691. Locke, Lower. Interest, 40. Not of the nature of the deusing-rod, or virgula divina, able to discover mines of gold and silver.
b. = ROD sb. 6 b.
1826. Peacock, in Encycl. Metrop. (1845), I. 411. Of this description are the virgulæ, or rods of Napier, which were formerly much celebrated and very generally used.
3. † a. = VIRGULE 1. Obs. rare.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Point, A Point with a Virgula, call’d a Semicolon. Ibid., s.v. Comma.
b. Mus. (See quots.)
1801. Busby, Dict. Mus., Virgula, the name of one of the ten notes used in the middle ages.
1876. Stainer & Barrett, Dict. Mus. Terms, 450/1. Virgula, (1) The stem or tail of a note. (2) A neume.
