A Grammatical Dictionary of Botanical Latin

Capillus,-i (s.m.II), abl. sg. capillo, nom. pl. capilli, acc.pl. capillos, dat. & acc.pl. capillis:

1. hair; “the hair of the head (w. coma, crinis) a single hair; the hair, fur, or wool of various animals; hair-like fiber or roots in plants (Glare);

- Pancovius decoctum ejus ad firmandos capillos laudat (Dill.), Pancovius commends a decoction of it for strengthening the hair [i.e. of the head].

NOTE: Dr. Thomas Panckow (Pancovius) (1654-1665).

2. hair's width, 1/12 Paris line, 0.18 mm (Stearn); “the breadth of a hair; the twelfth part of a line” (Lindley); “the width of a hair, taken as 1/12th of a line or about 0.17 mm” (Jackson);

[> L. capillus,-i (s.m.II), the hair of the head; a single hair; the hair (fur, wool) of animals; the hair-like fiber or roots in plants]; capillus,-i (s.m.II), “the hair of the head, while crinis is any hair” (Lewis & Short), used of both man and animals; = Gk. thrix, gen.sg. trichis (s.f.III), q.v.; also the threads or fibers of plants; cf. seta,-ae (s.f.I), q.v., a thick, stiff hair of an animal; coarse hair, as in the tail of a horse;; see hair;

- fila capillum humanum crassitie subaequantia (Agardh), threads nearly equaling the human hair in thickness.

- crassitie capilli humani (Agardh), with the thickness of a human hair.

- [moss] Nomen graccae compositionis, apud Apulejum primum occurrens et Polytrichum commune designans, a [polys] multum et [thrix] capillus, propter calyptrae indumentum villosum, (C.Muell.), a name of Greek composition, first occurring [in the writings of] Apulius and naming it Polytrichum commune, from [Gk. polys] ‘many’ and [Gk. thrix] ‘hair, due to the villous hair-covering of the calyptra.

Adiantum, the Maidenhair Ferns; Adiantum Capillus-Veneris, an old generic name meaning ‘hair of Venus; the Venus’-hair Fern.

NOTE: the ‘line’ or ‘linea,-ae’ (s.f.I) is one twelfth of an inch: English line, 2.1 mm., French line 2.3 mm. The ‘capillus’ is one twelfth of a line, or one twelfth of one twelfth of an inch, or 0.18 mm (Stearn), or 0.17mm (Jackson).