Pl. stomata. [mod.L., a. Gr. στόμα mouth.]
1. Anat. and Zool. A small opening in an animal body; an aperture, orifice, pore (as of a lymphatic or other vessel, an air-tube, etc.).
1684. Blancard’s Phys. Dict., Stoma, the Mouth, as also the Mouths of any Vessels.
1875. W. Turner, Introd. Hum. Anat., I. 140. Scattered … over this surface are the minute orifices, or stomata, which open into lymphatic vessels.
1881. Mivart, Cat, 217. The lymphatic vessels communicate with the peritoneal cavity by definite apertures called stomata.
1888. Rolleston & Jackson, Anim. Life, 240. The complete mesentery … will be seen to have two perforations. One of these, the inner septal stoma … is found universally among Sea Anemones…. The other perforation or outer septal stoma occurs in very few instances.
2. Bot. One of the minute orifices in the epidermis of plants, especially of the leaves, occurring as a slit between two (or in some cases more) cells of special structure (guard-cells), and opening into intercellular spaces in the interior tissue so as to afford communication with the outer air; a breathing-pore. (Sometimes used for the whole structure, including the guard-cells.)
1837. P. Keith, Bot. Lex., 231. The leaves … inhale … gases through means of their stomata.
1851. Carpenter, Man. Phys. (ed. 2), 55. The stomata are bounded by two or more cells, in such a manner that they can be opened or closed by changes in the form of these.
1884. Bower & Scott, De Bary’s Phaner., 34. The apparatus consisting of the pair of cells with the slit is called a pore or stoma. Ibid., 45. Stomata … are completely absent in roots.
