Hypertext Webster Gateway: "dimorphism"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Dimorphism \Di*mor"phism\, n. [Cf. F. dimorphisme.]
1. (Biol.) Difference of form between members of the same
species, as when a plant has two kinds of flowers, both
hermaphrodite (as in the partridge berry), or when there
are two forms of one or both sexes of the same species of
butterfly.
Dimorphism is the condition of the appearance of the
same species under two dissimilar forms. --Darwin.
2. (Crystallog.) Crystallization in two independent forms of
the same chemical compound, as of calcium carbonate as
calcite and aragonite.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
dimorphism
n 1: (chemistry) the property of certain substances that enables
them to exist in two distinct crystalline forms
2: (biology) the existence of two forms of individual within
the same animal species (independent of sex differences)
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