Hypertext Webster Gateway: "byssin"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Byssus \Bys"sus\, n.; pl. E. {Byssuses}; L. {Byssi}.[L. byssus
fine flax, fine linen or cotton, Gr. by`ssos .]
1. A cloth of exceedingly fine texture, used by the ancients.
It is disputed whether it was of cotton, linen, or silk.
[Written also {byss} and {byssin}.]
2. (Zo["o]l.) A tuft of long, tough filaments which are
formed in a groove of the foot, and issue from between the
valves of certain bivalve mollusks, as the {Pinna} and
{Mytilus}, by which they attach themselves to rocks, etc.
3. (Bot.) An obsolete name for certain fungi composed of
slender threads.
4. Asbestus.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Byssin \Bys"sin\, n.
See {Byssus}, n., 1.
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