dorsiferous

American  

[dawr-sif-er-uhs] / dɔrˈsɪf ər əs /

adjective

Botany.

1. borne on the back, as the sori on most ferns.

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dorsiferous British  

/ dɔːˈsɪfərəs /

adjective

1. rare botany zoology bearing or carrying (young, spores, etc) on the back or dorsal surface

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Etymology

Origin of dorsiferous

First recorded in 1720–30; dorsi- + -ferous

Example Sentences

Francis estimates the recent dorsiferous ferns of Great Britain at thirty-five species, and the species of all the other genera at six more,—forty-one species in all; and as the flowering plants of the country do not fall short of fourteen hundred species, the ferns bear to them the rather small proportion of about one to thirty-five; whereas of the British Coal Measure flora, in which we do not yet reckon quite three hundred species of plants, about a hundred and twenty were ferns.

From Project Gutenberg

That this opinion, so confidently held by Linnaeus, was never adopted by any other botanist, seems in part to have arisen from his having extended it to dorsiferous Ferns.

From Project Gutenberg