biforine

English

Etymology

From Latin biforis, biforus (“having two doors”), from bis (“twice”) foris (“door”).

Noun

biforine (plural biforines)

1. (botany) An oval sac or cell, found in the leaves of certain araceous plants, with an opening at each end through which raphides, generated inside, are discharged.
   • 1871, The American Naturalist: Volume 5, page 336:

     The true biforines when separated from the other tissues in water, rapidly discharge the crystals from one or both ends of the cells, and often with such force as to drive the cells backwards like a rocket […]

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “biforine”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)