A Grammatical Dictionary of Botanical Latin

Fossa,-ae (s.f.I): ditch, trench, canal, bed of a river; (narrow) channel, used for drainage, drain; waterway; “a long narrow excavation, ditchl, trench (esp. for drainage); (used in fortification) a moat, fosse; (used to convey water to or from a place) a canal; any rut, groove, etc.” (Glare) [> L. fodio, fodi, fossum 3. To dig; to work (mines); to make by digging (as trenches, ditches]; cf. alveus,-i (s.m.II); cf. furrow; scrobis,-is (m.f. or n. III), abl. sg. scrobe, ditch, trench; lacuna,-ae (s.f.I), “a ditch, pit, hole; especially a place where water collects, a pool, pond;” see ditch;

NOTE: the Roman defense system with a ditch (fossa,-ae (s.f.I), parallel to a wall which is a mound (agger,-eris (s.m.III), erected through the middle of a plain.

Fossula,-ae (s.f.I): a small ditch, a trench [dim. fossa,-ae).

- in fossis et stagnis, in ditches and ponds (Stearn).

- [Marsilea terrestris] in umbrosis, et humidis fossarum aggeribus variis in locis, ut in sylva aucuparia, vulgo , ‘la Ragnaja del Poggio Imperiale,’ et in quodam Impruneta castaneto nuncupato Lojano. (Mich.), in various shady places, and the humid earthen dikes of ditches, such as in the fowling-forest, commonly [called] ‘la Ragnaja del Poggio Imperiale.’

- [Oscillatoria limosa; algae] habitat in fundo limoso fossarum, lacuum, rivulorumque lente fluentium, demum aquae innatans (Agardh), it grows in the muddy bottom of ditches, lakes and slowly flowing brooks, eventually growing in water.

- terram unde exsculpserant, fossam vocabant, the ground whence they have excavated, they call a ditch.

- Var. d. in rupibus decompositis, rivulo e fossa Schwarzwand proveniente irrigatis (C. Mueller), on decomposed rocks, irrigated by a creek coming forth from the Schwarzwand waterway.

- in fossis, in ditches.

- fossa fluminis Niagarae, bed of the Niagara River.

- hab. ad margines fossarum circa Carlopolim Carolinae Inferioris (cl. Ravenel detexit), it grows at the margines of ditches around Carlopolis of Lower (i.e. South) Carolina (the honorable Ravenel discovered it).

- in fossis lacubus fluminibusque lente fluentibus Europae (DeCandolle), in the [canals, ditches] of lakes and the slowly flowing streams of Europe.

- in fossis et fluminibus lente fluentibus Europae (DeCandolle), in the waterways and slowly flowing streams of Europe.

- (moss) [Bruchia palustris] In locis uliginosis et turfosis ad fossarum margines Thuringiae (Mueller), in marshy and peaty places on the margines of ditches of Thuringia.

- [alga] Hab. in fossis subsalsis salinarum; prope Cette, mense aprilis, legi (Agardh), Habitat: I collected it in the month of April in brackish ditches of the salt works near Cette.

- [Nuphar advena] in fossis et lacubus aquae dulcis et etiam aquae salsae in America bor.— (DeCandolle), in the waterways and lakes of fresh water and also of salt water in North America [borealis].

- in agris, pratis humidis, ad fossarum margines, in arborum truncis terra obtectis per totam Europam (C. Mueller), in cultivated fields, wet meadows, on the edges of ditches, on the trunks of trees covered with soil throughout all Europe.

- in fossis et paludibus totius Europae, Sibiriae, Cochinchinae (DeCandolle), in the ditches and swamps of all Europe, Siberia, Cochinchina.

- in molendinariis parietibus, circa fossas udas in loco nuncupato ‘Quarto’ (Mich.), on the walls of mills, around wet ditches in the place called the ‘Quarto.’

- [Octospora bulbosa] Ad fossas sylvarum udas e. g. aquaeductus piscinae pineti lindenthalensis hic Lipsiae, iam Iulii initio post pluviosam tempestatem hinc inde prodit (Hedw.; Adumb.), it comes forth here and there on the wet ditches of forests, e.g. the conduit of the fishpoool of the Lindenthal [a suburb of Leipzig] pine-association here in Leipzig, already at the beginning of July after rainy weather.