: a fleshy cup or tube that surrounds the archegonium of various bryophytes (as of the liverwort group) and that is formed either from the stem apex or from the thallus
2
: the saclike bract that subtends the pistillate flower of sedges of the genus Carex and that in fruit becomes a flask-shaped envelope investing the achene
Word History
Etymology
New Latin, from peri- + -gynium (from Greek gynē woman, wife, pistil + New Latin -ium)