Pl. lamellæ. [L. lāmella, dim. of LAMINA.] A thin plate, scale, layer, or film, esp. of bone or tissue; e.g., one of the thin scales or plates that compose some shells, one of the gills forming the hymenium of a mushroom, one of the erect scales appended to the corollas of some flowers.
1678. Phil. Trans., XII. 977. These Lamellæ, wherewith the said Tunick is roll’d up in so many more folds.
1741. Monro, Anat. Bones (ed. 3), 87. The nasal Lamella of the ethmoid Bone.
1777. G. Forster, Voy. round World, I. 502. A talcous stone, which when exposed to the sun and air … dissolves into lamellæ.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 244. Corolla monopetalous … 5-lobed, with 2 lamellæ at the base of each lobe.
1841–71. T. R. Jones, Anim. Kingd. (ed. 4), 428. The ventral surface of the central lamella of the terminal fin.
1879. Rutley, Study Rocks, x. 87. More than fifty lamellae have been noted, under the microscope, in a single crystal.
