Bot. [mod.L. (Linnæus, 1767), taken from zamiæ, misreading for azaniæ pine-nuts which open on the tree, in Pliny N. H. XVI. xxvi. 44.] A genus of cycadaceous plants, natives of the tropical and sub-tropical parts of N. America, the W. Indies, and S. Africa, resembling dwarf palms, with fern-like leaves and oblong cones; a plant of this genus.
1819. Lindley, trans. Richard’s Obs. Fruits & Seeds, 74. The embryo of Zamia is reversed with regard to the pericarp, and occupies an axile cavity in a large endosperm.
1827. Gard. Mag., II. 425. The Zamia is a palm with a large scaly protuberance above the surface.
1841. G. Grey, Jrnl. Two Exped. Discov., II. iii. 61. The native had … gone away to look for Zamia nuts.
1847. Ansted, Anc. World, ix. 219. Zamias, cycadeæ, and such plants.
Hence Zamioid a., belonging to the genus Zamia or tribe Zamieæ.
1860. J. Phillips, Life on Earth, 145. Stems and fronds of Zamioid and Cycadeoid plants.
