a. (sb.) [f. BASE sb. + -AL.]

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  1.  Pertaining to, situated at, or forming the base. In Bot. Situated at the base of the ovary. Basal plane and cleavage in Crystallog.: one parallel to the lateral or horizontal axis.

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1828.  Kirby & Sp., Entomol., III. xxxii. 330. The elytra have a basal gibbosity.

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1845.  Darwin, Voy. Nat., xii. (1879), 254. Geologising the basal parts of the Andes.

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1870.  Hooker, Stud. Flora, 314. Amaranthaceæ … ovules … basal.

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  2.  fig. Fundamental.

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1865.  Bushnell, Vicar. Sacr., III. v. (1868), 330. A much deeper and more nearly basal office.

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1883.  H. Drummond, Nat. Law in Spir. W., 378. Classification should rest on the most basal characteristics.

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  3.  Comb., as basal-nerved, ‘with nerves all springing from the base of the leaf.’ Gray Bot. Text-bk.

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  B.  as sb. A basal part; spec. one of the basal plates encircling the stem of the crinoids.

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1877.  Huxley, Anat. Inv. Anim., ix. 589. The basals coalescing into the rosette are hidden by the first radials.

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1881.  Nature, 4 Aug., 305. Those species of Pentacrinus in which the basals form a complete ring.

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