a. [f. L. stellifer: see STELLIFER and -FEROUS.] Bearing stars. a. Said of the vault of heaven; loosely, † of the beams of the sun. b. Biol. Having star-shaped markings.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abuses (1877), 79. The stelliferous beames of the glistering Sun.
1616. J. Lane, Contn. Sqr.’s T., III. 285. Th’ whole forme to bee as round as globe edight,… its vault stelliferous.
1822. J. Parkinson, Outl. Oryctol., 76. Agaricia—A stony polypifer,… the upper surfaces only having stelliferous grooves.
1828. Stark, Elem. Nat. Hist., II. 430. Fixed, stony, developing a free foliaceous membrane, waved and sublobed, with one stelliferous face.
1849. H. Miller, Footpr. Creat., iii. (1874), 23. Its true scales … were not stelliferous.
