Bot. [ad. L. corculum, dim. of cor heart: in mod.F. corcule. The L. form is also in use.] A name for the embryo in the seed of a plant.
[1772. Ann. Reg., 171. The cotyledons … which include the corculum or first principle of the future plant.] Ibid. (1810), 111. The position of the corcle in the seed is always in the vicinity of the hilum.
1826. Good, Bk. Nat. (1834), I. 166. It is the corcle which is the true punctum saliens of vegetable life.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., II. 106. At the base of the plumule is the corcule, or germ of the future plant.
