a. Also 7 foleaceous, 8–9 foliacious. [f. L. foliāce-us leafy, f. folium leaf: see -ACEOUS. Cf. Fr. foliacé.]
1. a. Having the appearance or nature of a leaf; leaf-like. Of certain cryptogamous plants: Having organs resembling leaves. † Of a flower: Having petals.
1658. Sir T. Browne, The Garden of Cyrus, iii. 34. Seeds themselves in their rudimentall discoveries, appear in foliaceous surcles, or sprouts within their coverings.
1668. Wilkins, Real Char., 70. Herbs … Not flowring; (i.) not having any foliaceous flower.
1756. P. Browne, Jamaica (1789), 128. The largest foliaceous Cyperus. This plant grows in all the low lands near the Caymanas; and rises commonly to the height of five feet, or better.
1806. J. Galpine, Brit. Bot., 335. Teeth of the calyx foliaceous, at length spreading.
1861. H. Macmillan, Footnotes fr. Page Nature, 23. Mosses belong to the foliaceous or highest division of flowerless plants.
1877. Darwin, Forms of Fl., iii. 116. The foliaceous stigma is more expanded, and twice as large as that of the short-styled form.
b. Bearing leaves, leafy; having an abundance of foliage. rare.
1677. Coles, Foliaceous, leavy.
1800. W. Taylor, in Monthly Mag., X. 318/2. While some withering words would drop from the foliaceous tree of our language; the light green leaves of many a new and fairer sprout of expression would spread abroad, and fresh blossoms of diction unrimple their roseate petals.
c. Of or pertaining to a leaf or leaves, consisting of leaves.
1815. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., I. xii. 378. The larger herbivorous animals are confined to a foliaceous or farinaceous diet.
1870. H. Macmillan, Bible Teach., vii. 134. By some the stem is regarded as an essentially distinct and typical part, but the study of plants in which it departs from the normal form, will clearly indicate its foliaceous origin.
2. Consisting of, or having the character of, thin leaf-like plates or laminæ.
1728. Woodward, Fossils, I. I. 162. Consisting of an outer Crust of ruddy talky Spar, and of blue talky foliaceous Spar, within.
1766. Phil. Trans., LVI. 37. The metal is not only found in granules, but in a foliaceous manner issuing out of the quartz.
1770–4. A. Hunter, Georg. Ess. (1803), I. 231, note. Whence they appear to be flakes of foliaceous talc.
1861. Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, II. III. ii. 86. The shell [of the Oyster] is attached, bivalved, irregular, foliaceous, rough, and generally thick; upper valve short, flat, and moveable; lower valve larger and convex.
3. Zool. & Ent. Shaped or arranged like leaves.
1828. Stark, Elem. Nat. Hist., II. 170. A foliaceous appendage at the origin of the feet which surround the mouth.
1854. Woodward, Mollusca (1856), 276. Valves foliaceous, the upper smallest.
1879. E. P. Wright, Anim. Life, 59. The bats of this family have … foliaceous cutaneous appendages surrounding the nasal apertures.
Hence Foliaceousness, the condition or quality of being foliaceous.
1727. in Bailey, vol. II.
