Veg·e·ta·ble a.
 1. Of or pertaining to plants; having the nature of, or produced by, plants; as, a vegetable nature; vegetable growths, juices, etc.
 Blooming ambrosial fruit
 Of vegetable gold.   --Milton.
 2. Consisting of, or comprising, plants; as, the vegetable kingdom.
 Vegetable alkali Chem., an alkaloid.
 Vegetable brimstone. Bot. See Vegetable sulphur, below.
 Vegetable butter Bot., a name of several kinds of concrete vegetable oil; as that produced by the Indian butter tree, the African shea tree, and the Pentadesma butyracea, a tree of the order Guttiferae, also African. Still another kind is pressed from the seeds of cocoa (Theobroma).
 Vegetable flannel, a textile material, manufactured in Germany from pine-needle wool, a down or fiber obtained from the leaves of the Pinus sylvestris.
 Vegetable ivory. See Ivory nut, under Ivory.
 Vegetable jelly. See Pectin.
 Vegetable kingdom. Nat. Hist. See the last Phrase, below.
 Vegetable leather. (a) Bot. A shrubby West Indian spurge (Euphorbia punicea), with leathery foliage and crimson bracts. (b) See Vegetable leather, under Leather.
 Vegetable marrow Bot., an egg-shaped gourd, commonly eight to ten inches long.  It is noted for the very tender quality of its flesh, and is a favorite culinary vegetable in England.  It has been said to be of Persian origin, but is now thought to have been derived from a form of the American pumpkin.
 Vegetable oyster Bot., the oyster plant. See under Oyster.
 Vegetable parchment, papyrine.
 Vegetable sheep Bot., a white woolly plant (Raoulia eximia) of New Zealand, which grows in the form of large fleecy cushions on the mountains.
 Vegetable silk, a cottonlike, fibrous material obtained from the coating of the seeds of a Brazilian tree (Chorisia speciosa).  It is used for various purposes, as for stuffing cushions, and the like, but is incapable of being spun on account of a want of cohesion among the fibers.
 Vegetable sponge. See 1st Loof.
 Vegetable sulphur, the fine and highly inflammable spores of the club moss (Lycopodium clavatum); witch meal.
 Vegetable tallow, a substance resembling tallow, obtained from various plants; as, Chinese vegetable tallow, obtained from the seeds of the tallow tree. Indian vegetable tallow is a name sometimes given to piney tallow.
 Vegetable wax, a waxy excretion on the leaves or fruits of certain plants, as the bayberry.
 Vegetable kingdom Nat. Hist., that primary division of living things which includes all plants. The classes of the vegetable kingdom have been grouped differently by various botanists. The following is one of the best of the many arrangements of the principal subdivisions.
 I. Phaenogamia (called also Phanerogamia). Plants having distinct flowers and true seeds. { 1. Dicotyledons (called also Exogens). -- Seeds with two or more cotyledons.  Stems with the pith, woody fiber, and bark concentrically arranged.  Divided into two subclasses: Angiosperms, having the woody fiber interspersed with dotted or annular ducts, and the seeds contained in a true ovary; Gymnosperms, having few or no ducts in the woody fiber, and the seeds naked.  2. Monocotyledons (called also Endogens). -- Seeds with single cotyledon. Stems with slender bundles of woody fiber not concentrically arranged, and with no true bark.}
 II. Cryptogamia. Plants without true flowers, and reproduced by minute spores of various kinds, or by simple cell division. { 1. Acrogens. -- Plants usually with distinct stems and leaves, existing in two alternate conditions, one of which is nonsexual and sporophoric, the other sexual and oophoric.  Divided into Vascular Acrogens, or Pteridophyta, having the sporophoric plant conspicuous and consisting partly of vascular tissue, as in Ferns, Lycopods, and Equiseta, and Cellular Acrogens, or Bryophyta, having the sexual plant most conspicuous, but destitute of vascular tissue, as in Mosses and Scale Mosses. 2. Thallogens. -- Plants without distinct stem and leaves, consisting of a simple or branched mass of cellular tissue, or reduced to a single cell.  Reproduction effected variously. Divided into Algae, which contain chlorophyll or its equivalent, and which live upon air and water, and Fungi, which contain no chlorophyll, and live on organic matter. (Lichens are now believed to be fungi parasitic on included algae.}
 Note: ☞ Many botanists divide the Phaenogamia primarily into Gymnosperms and Angiosperms, and the latter into Dicotyledons and Monocotyledons. Others consider Pteridophyta and Bryophyta to be separate classes. Thallogens are variously divided by different writers, and the places for diatoms, slime molds, and stoneworts are altogether uncertain.
    For definitions, see these names in the Vocabulary.
 Wax, n.
 1. A fatty, solid substance, produced by bees, and employed by them in the construction of their comb; -- usually called beeswax. It is first excreted, from a row of pouches along their sides, in the form of scales, which, being masticated and mixed with saliva, become whitened and tenacious. Its natural color is pale or dull yellow.
 Note: ☞ Beeswax consists essentially of cerotic acid (constituting the more soluble part) and of myricyl palmitate (constituting the less soluble part).
 2. Hence, any substance resembling beeswax in consistency or appearance.  Specifically: --
 (a) Physiol. Cerumen, or earwax.  See Cerumen.
 (b) A waxlike composition used for uniting surfaces, for excluding air, and for other purposes; as, sealing wax, grafting wax, etching wax, etc.
 (c) A waxlike composition used by shoemakers for rubbing their thread.
 (d) Zool. A substance similar to beeswax, secreted by several species of scale insects, as the Chinese wax.  See Wax insect, below.
 (e) Bot. A waxlike product secreted by certain plants.  See Vegetable wax, under Vegetable.
 (f) Min. A substance, somewhat resembling wax, found in connection with certain deposits of rock salt and coal; -- called also mineral wax, and ozocerite.
 (g) Thick sirup made by boiling down the sap of the sugar maple, and then cooling.  [Local U. S.]
 Japanese wax, a waxlike substance made in Japan from the berries of certain species of Rhus, esp. Rhus succedanea.
 Mineral wax. Min. See Wax, 2 (f), above.
 Wax cloth. See Waxed cloth, under Waxed.
 Wax end. See Waxed end, under Waxed.
 Wax flower, a flower made of, or resembling, wax.
 Wax insect Zool., any one of several species of scale insects belonging to the family Coccidae, which secrete from their bodies a waxlike substance, especially the Chinese wax insect (Coccus Sinensis) from which a large amount of the commercial Chinese wax is obtained. Called also pela.
 Wax light, a candle or taper of wax.
 Wax moth Zool., a pyralid moth (Galleria cereana) whose larvae feed upon honeycomb, and construct silken galleries among the fragments. The moth has dusky gray wings streaked with brown near the outer edge. The larva is yellowish white with brownish dots. Called also bee moth.
 Wax myrtle. Bot. See Bayberry.
 Wax painting, a kind of painting practiced by the ancients, under the name of encaustic. The pigments were ground with wax, and diluted. After being applied, the wax was melted with hot irons and the color thus fixed.
 Wax palm. Bot. (a) A species of palm (Ceroxylon Andicola) native of the Andes, the stem of which is covered with a secretion, consisting of two thirds resin and one third wax, which, when melted with a third of fat, makes excellent candles. (b) A Brazilian tree (Copernicia cerifera) the young leaves of which are covered with a useful waxy secretion.
 Wax paper, paper prepared with a coating of white wax and other ingredients.
 Wax plant Bot., a name given to several plants, as: (a) The Indian pipe (see under Indian). (b) The Hoya carnosa, a climbing plant with polished, fleshy leaves. (c) Certain species of Begonia with similar foliage.
 Wax tree Bot. (a) A tree or shrub (Ligustrum lucidum) of China, on which certain insects make a thick deposit of a substance resembling white wax. (b) A kind of sumac (Rhus succedanea) of Japan, the berries of which yield a sort of wax. (c) A rubiaceous tree (Elaeagia utilis) of New Grenada, called by the inhabitants “arbol del cera.”
 Wax yellow, a dull yellow, resembling the natural color of beeswax.
 vegetable wax
      n : a waxy substance obtained from plants (especially from the
          trunks of certain palms)