Definition of zamia:

part of speech: noun

A genus of very remarkable plants, nearly related to both ferns and palms, and bearing heads of flowers like pine- cones.

Usage examples:

• The native had at this time gone away to look for Zamia nuts, and it may be imagined that many almost undefined feelings at such a time thronged rapidly through my mind. George Grey in "Journals Of Two Expeditions Of Discovery In North-West And Western Australia, Vol. 2 (of 2)".

• They had the " Caffir bread"- the inside pith of the stems of a species of Zamia and the " Caffir chestnut," the fruit of the Brabeium stellatum; and last, not least, the enormous roots of the " elephant's foot." Mayne Reid in "Popular Adventure Tales".

• On passing the last, the party emerged on to poorly grassed, desolate- looking sandstone ridges, covered with grass- tree and zamia Frank Jardine and Alexander Jardine in "The Overland Expedition of The Messrs. Jardine".

• From the facts above described we may infer, first, that those beds of the Upper Oolite, called " the Portland," which are full of marine shells, were overspread with fluviatile mud, which became dry land, and covered by a forest, throughout a portion of the space now occupied by the south of England, the climate being such as to permit the growth of the Zamia and Cycas. Sir Charles Lyell in "The Student's Elements of Geology".