Stel"lu*late (?), a. (Bot.) Minutely stellate.
||Stel`ma*top"o*da (?), n. pl. [NL., fr. Gr. &?; a block, post + &?;,
||&?;, eye + &?;, &?;, foot.] (Zoöl.) Same as Gymnolæmata.
Ste*log"ra*phy (?), n. [Gr. &?; a post, slab, pillar + -graphy: cf. Gr.
&?; an inscription on a tablet.] The art of writing or inscribing
characters on pillars. [R.] Stackhouse.
{ Stem (?), Steem (?) }, v. i. To gleam. [Obs.]
His head bald, that shone as any glass, . . . [And] stemed as a
furnace of a leed [caldron].
Chaucer.
{ Stem, Steem }, n. A gleam of light; flame. [Obs.]
Stem (stm), n. [AS. stemn, stefn, stæfn; akin to OS. stamn the stem of
a ship, D. stam stem, steven stem of a ship, G. stamm stem, steven stem
of a ship, Icel. stafn, stamn, stem of a ship, stofn, stomn, stem, Sw.
stam a tree trunk, Dan. stamme. Cf. Staff, Stand.] 1. The principal
body of a tree, shrub, or plant, of any kind; the main stock; the part
which supports the branches or the head or top.
After they are shot up thirty feet in length, they spread a very
large top, having no bough nor twig in the trunk or the stem.
Sir W. Raleigh.
The lowering spring, with lavish rain, Beats down the slender stem
and breaded grain.
Dryden.
2. A little branch which connects a fruit, flower, or leaf with a main
branch; a peduncle, pedicel, or petiole; as, the stem of an apple or a
cherry.
3. The stock of a family; a race or generation of progenitors. "All
that are of noble stem." Milton.
While I do pray, learn here thy stem And true descent.
Herbert.