welwitschia,
n. [NL. So named after the discoverer, Dr.
Friedrich Welwitsch.].
An African plant (Welwitschia mirabilis) belonging to the order Gnetaceæ. It consists of a short, woody, topshaped stem, and never more than two leaves, which are the cotyledons enormously developed, and at length split into diverging segments. [1913 Webster]