Dictionary entry

Xanthium

Webster's Dictionary 1913

‖Xan″thi‐um (?), n. [NL., fr. Gr. ξάνθιον a plant used for dyeing the hair yellow, said to be the Xanthium strumarium, from ξανθόσ yellow.] (Bot.) A genus of composite plants in which the scales of the involucre are united so as to form a kind of bur; cocklebur; clotbur.