a. [ad. mod.L. ternāt-us (in Linnæus, 1750), in form pe. pple. of med.L. ternāre (Promp. Parv.) to treble or make threefold. Cf. F. terné (1783 in Hatz.-Darm.).] Produced or arranged in threes; spec. Bot. applied to a compound leaf composed of three leaflets, or to leaves arranged in whorls of three; also to leaflets borne on secondary or tertiary similarly arranged petioles (biternate, triternate).
1760. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., III. vi. (1765), 188. Biternate, or Duplicato-Ternate, when there are three Folioles on a Petiole, and each Foliole is Ternate.
1785. Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., xvi. (1794), 177. The species is distinguished by its ternate leaves.
1812. New Bot. Gard., i. 28. The leaf [of Anemone nemorosa] is doubly ternate.
1861. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., I. 4. A ternate leaf consists of three leaflets on a common stalk, as in the Clover.
So † Ternated a. Obs. rare–1.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v. Leaf, Ternated Leaf, a compound one,… of three leaves on a common petiole.
