3. (Bot.) (a) An incipient ovule of soft cellular tissue. (b) A whole
seed, as contained within the seed coats.
4. (Biol.) A body, usually spheroidal, in a cell or a protozoan,
distinguished from the surrounding protoplasm by a difference in
refrangibility and in behavior towards chemical reagents. It is more or
less protoplasmic, and consists of a clear fluid (achromatin) through
which extends a network of fibers (chromatin) in which may be suspended
a second rounded body, the nucleolus (see Nucleoplasm). See Cell
division, under Division.
The nucleus is sometimes termed the endoplast or endoblast, and in the
protozoa is supposed to be concerned in the female part of the
reproductive process. See Karyokinesis.
5. (Zoöl.) (a) The tip, or earliest part, of a univalve or bivalve
shell. (b) The central part around which additional growths are added,
as of an operculum. (c) A visceral mass, containing the stomach and
other organs, in Tunicata and some mollusks.
||Nu"cu*la (?), n. [L., little nut, dim. of nux, nucis, a nut.] (Zoöl.)
||A genus of small marine bivalve shells, having a pearly interior.
Nu"cule (n"kl), n. [L. nucula a small nut.] (Bot.) Same as Nutlet.
Nu`cu*men*ta"ceous (?), a. (Bot.) See Nucamentaceous.
Nu*da"tion (?), n. [L. nudatio, fr. nudare to make naked, fr. nudus
naked. See Nude.] The act of stripping, or making bare or naked.
Nud"dle (?), v. i. To walk quickly with the head bent forward; -- often
with along. [Prov. Eng.]