[f. Gr. ἔνδο-ν (see ENDO-) + δέρμ-α skin.]
1. Bot. a. A layer of large cambium cells lying beneath the liber. b. The inner layer of the wall of a vegetable cell.
1835. Lindley, Introd. Bot. (1848), I. 193. The cellular face of the liber A. Richard distinguishes by the name of Subliberian layer, or Endoderm.
2. Biol. a. The inner layer of the blastoderm. b. The lining of the internal cavity of the Cœlenterata.
1861. J. R. Greene, Man. Anim. Kingd., Cœlent., 21. The endoderm, whose free surface forms the lining of the large internal cavity.
1862. H. Spencer, First Princ., II. xix. § 152 (1875), 417. The blastoderm divides into two layers the ectoderm and the endoderm.
1877. Huxley, Anat. Inv. Anim., iii. 113. The endoderm is composed of a layer of very distinct cells.
Hence Endodermal, Endodermic adjs., pertaining to or of the nature of an endoderm; Endodermis [on the analogy of epidermis], Bot.
1877. Huxley, Anat. Inv. Anim., i. 57. The endodermal lining of the enterocœle. Ibid., iii. 114. The flagella of the endodermic cells.
1884. Bower & Scott, De Barys Phaner. & Ferns, 121. The endodermis is a sheath consisting in all cases of one single layer of cells.