Crossword-Solution: PRIMORDIUM 10 letters, 1 clue 🏆 scrabble score: 17

Liceat hoc nobis _primordium vegetale_ nominare; nempe substantiam quandam corpoream vitam habentem potentiâ; vel quoddam per se existens, quod aptum sit, in vegetativam formam, ab interno principio operante, mutari.

Quale nempe primordium, ovum est et plantarum semen; tale etiam viviparorum conceptus, et insectorum _vermis_ ab Aristotele dictus: diversa scilicet diversorum viventium primordia." The definition of a germ as "matter potentially alive, and having within itself the tendency to assume a definite living form," appears to meet all the requirements of modern science.

For it is evident that he uses the word "egg," in its more general sense, as designating any material substance capable of receiving his "primordium" (first principle of life) and developing itself into a living organism.

Fifthly, from their first rudiment, or primordium, to the termination of their lives, all animals undergo perpetual transformations; which are in part produced by their own exertions in consequence of their desires and aversions, of their pleasures and their pains, or of irritations, or of associations; and many of these acquired forms or propensities are transmitted to their posterity.

These pits are not isolated, but are connected by an ectodermal ridge, which grows in at the margin of the mantle and forms a continuous band somewhat resembling the ectodermal primordium of vertebrate teeth.