quincuncial

From Latin quincuncialis.

• IPA^(key): /kwɪnˈkʌnʃəl/

quincuncial (comparative more quincuncial, superlative most quincuncial)

1. Arranged in a quincunx.
   • 1658, Sir Thomas Browne, The Garden of Cyrus, Folio Society, published 2007, page 169:

     Of this Quincunciall Ordination the Ancients practised much, discoursed little [...].

   • 1985, Lawrence Durrell, Quinx, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), p. 1297:

     In architecture the quincunxial shape was considered a sort of housing for the divine power – a battery, if you like, which gathered into itself the divinity as it tried to pour earthward, to earth itself – just like an electrical current does.

2. (botany) Having the leaves of a pentamerous calyx or corolla so imbricated that two are exterior, two are interior, and the other has one edge exterior and one interior.

   quincuncial aestivation

• quincuncially
• quincuncial phyllotaxy