Văs'cu-lar, a.

a. [Fr. vasculaire, Sp. vascular, It. vasculare, vascolare, from Lat. vasculum, a small vessel, diminutive of vas, vessel.]

1. Consisting of vessels, or containing them, as an essential part of a structure.
2. Operating by means of, or made up of, an arrangement of vessels; as, the vascular system in animals, including arteries, veins, lacteals, and the like.
3. Pertaining to the vessels of animal or vegetable bodies; as, the vascular functions.
4. (Bot.) Of, or pertaining to the higher division of plants, the phenogamous, all of which are vascular, in distinction from the cryptogams, which to a large extent are cellular only.

Vascular plants (Bot.), plants composed of vascular tissue, including all plants except a part of the cryptogams, the mosses, the sea-weeds, the lichens, and the liverworts, these being simply cellulose.