(a) Producing or promoting growth, vegetation, or vigor; animating, vivifying; ~ vertu, vertu ~; (b) phil. pertaining to the lowest species of soul, which gives bodily life, growth, and reproduction; also, pertaining to the vegetative powers of the soul or to the bodily forces associated with these powers; also in person. [last quot.]; also, as noun: the species of soul that gives life [1st quot.]; (c) of material substance neither animal nor mineral, of the plant kingdom; alch. pertaining to one of the three varieties of philosophers’ stone [1st quot.]; also, as noun: things of the plant kingdom [last quot.].