a. [SUB- 12 b, 19.]
1. Bordering on the tropics.
1865. Englishman’s Mag., Nov., 393. Some currents convey ice into subtropical countries.
1867. Lyell, Princ. Geol. (ed. 10), I. I. x. 200. A climate approaching that now only experienced in sub-tropical regions.
1883. Chamb. Jrnl., 3 March, 142/2. The sponges of commerce are almost entirely obtained from tropical or sub-tropical seas.
2. Characteristic of subtropical regions; of a climate, character, habit, etc., between temperate and tropical; almost tropical.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 527. Climates sub-tropical, or tropical.
1863. Dana, Man. Geology, 534. The Miocene flora of the vicinity of Vienna the same author pronounces to be subtropical.
1868. Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869), 6. The … culture of tropical and sub-tropical fruits in the southern States.
1880. Dawkins, Early Man in Brit., ii. 21. The sub-tropical members decreased, and the temperate forms … preponderated.
