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trimorphism

trimorphism


  1  definition  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Trimorphism  \Tri*mor"phism\,  n.  [See  {Trimorphic}.] 
  1.  (Crystallog.)  The  property  of  crystallizing  in  three  forms 
  fundamentally  distinct,  as  is  the  case  with  titanium 
  dioxide,  which  crystallizes  in  the  forms  of  rutile, 
  octahedrite,  and  brookite.  See  {Pleomorphism}. 
 
  2.  (Biol.)  The  co["e]xistence  among  individuals  of  the  same 
  species  of  three  distinct  forms,  not  connected,  as  a  rule 
  by  intermediate  gradations;  the  condition  among 
  individuals  of  the  same  species  of  having  three  different 
  shapes  or  proportions  of  corresponding  parts  -- 
  contrasted  with  {polymorphism},  and  dimorphism. 
 
  {Heterogonous  trimporphism}  (Bot.),  that  condition  in  which 
  flowers  of  plants  of  the  same  species  have  three  different 
  lengths  of  stamens,  short,  medium,  and  long,  the  blossoms 
  of  one  individual  plant  having  short  and  medium  stamens 
  and  a  long  style,  those  of  another  having  short  and  long 
  stamens  and  a  style  of  medium  length,  and  those  of  a  third 
  having  medium  and  long  stamens  and  a  short  style,  the 
  style  of  each  blossom  thus  being  of  a  length  not 
  represented  by  its  stamens.