Pl. stromata. [mod.L. use of L. strōma bed-covering, a. Gr. στρῶμα ‘anything spread or laid out for lying or sitting upon’ (L. & Sc.), f. στρω- root of στρωννύναι to strew, spread, cogn. w. L. strā- (ster:nĕre): see STRATUM.]
1. Anat. The fibrous connective sustentacular tissue or substance of a part or organ. Also the framework containing the alveoli of cancer-cells.
1835–6. R. Owen, in Todd’s Cycl. Anat., I. 356/2. The ova are imbedded in a stroma of delicate and yielding cellular substance.
1846. W. H. Walshe, Cancer, 19. The stroma is closely set; the loculi are consequently small.
1873. T. H. Green, Introd. Pathol., 159. The stroma varies considerably in amount, being much more abundant in some varieties of cancer than in others. It consists of a more or less distinctly fibrillated tissue, arranged so as to form alveoli of various forms and sizes, within which the cells are grouped.
1878. T. Bryant, Pract. Surg., I. 99. A tumour developed in the stroma of a fibrous structure will probably be fibrous.
b. The spongy colorless framework of a red blood corpuscle or other cell.
1872. Thudichum, Chem. Physiol., 29. We further have in blood corpuscles a certain quantity of what is called stroma.
1873. Ralfe, Phys. Chem., 156. The stroma is the colourless portion of the living blood corpuscle.
2. Bot. A structure containing the substance in which perithecia or other organs of fructification are immersed.
1832. Lindley, Introd. Bot., 209. Stroma is a fleshy body to which flocci are attached.
1836. M. J. Berkeley, Sir J. E. Smith’s Engl. Flora, V. II. 236. Sphæria concentrica … easily known by its beautifully zoned stroma.
1857. Henfrey, Bot., 171. A more or less distinct stroma or common receptacle.
1882. Vines, trans. Sachs’ Bot., 317. The stromata arise beneath the skin.
b. In vegetable physiology, the solid matter remaining after all the fluid has been expressed from protoplasm.
1885. Goodale, Physiol. Bot., vi. 198. To the solid matter [of the protoplasm], the name stroma is applicable. Ibid., x. 290. This spongy stroma, or ‘trabecular mass.’
3. attrib. and Comb.
1887. W. Phillips, Brit. Discomycetes, 349. A stroma-like tubercle.
1898. Syd. Soc. Lex., Stroma fibrin, Landois’ term for fibrin formed directly from stroma instead of plasma. Ibid., Stroma plexus, a plexus of axis-cylinders formed by the corneal nerves.
1905. Brit. Med. Jrnl., 1 July, 19. The interstitial cells [of the ovary] are to be distinguished from the stroma cells.
