A Grammatical Dictionary of Botanical Latin

thel-, thele-, thelo-; -thelium,-ii (s.n.II): in Gk. comp., nipple- [> Gk. thElE, fem., �the part of the breast which gives suck, the teat, nipple; papilla]; see nipple; see breast; see tuberculum,-i (s.n.II); cf. epithelium;

- thelecarpus, with a nipple-like fruit; thelephorus, bearing nipple-like projections; thelespermus, with seeds having nipple-like projections (Stearn).

- thelotremoideus,-a,-um (adj.A), �having tubercular double-walled apothecia like those of Thelotrema of the lichens� (Snell & Dick).

Taxithelium, a genus of mosses, "So named because of several papillae [i.e. nipples] arranged in a row [Gk. -taxis,-is, arrangement, order] over the cell lumen" (Crum & Anderson 1981); Thelesperma,-atis (s.n.III), �From the Greek thele, a nipple, and sperma, seed, on account of the papillose achenes� (Fernald 1950), according to Stearn (1996) �in allusion to the form of the seeds (cypselae) in some species;� Thelia, a genus of pleurocarpous mosses with conspicuous high, curved papillae on the leaf cells; Thelocactus, derived from Gk. thELE, a nipple + Cactus (Stearn 1996).

NOTE: a thelion [thelium,-ii (s.n.II), abl. sg. thelio; or thelion,-ii (s.n.II), abl. sg. thelio] is �the central point of the nipple� WIII.