Bot. In 8 calyptre. [mod. L. a. Gr. καλύπτρα covering, veil, f. καλύπτειν to cover. Cf. F. calyptre.] A hood or cover; spec. a. the hood of the sporecase in mosses; b. ‘the interior membranaceous, and often hairy covering of the ovarium’ (De Candolle and Sprengel, Philos. Plants, 61).
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Calyptra.
1777. Robson, Brit. Flora, 26. A calyptra is the calyx of a Moss, covering the fructification like a hood.
1794. Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., xxxii. 493. A lidded capsule, covered with a smooth calyptre.
1807. J. E. Smith, Phys. Bot., 402. Mosses, which have … a hood-like corolla, or calyptra, bearing the style, and concealing the capsule.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 60. [Of the Mangrove Tribe] Calyx superior … with the lobes varying in number … occasionally all cohering in a calyptra.
1858. Carpenter, Veg. Phys., § 736.
