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Webster 1913 Edition

Adj.

[From L.

incubare

to lie on.]

(Bot.)

Having the leaves so placed that the upper part of each one covers the base of the leaf next above it, as in hepatic mosses of the genus

Frullania

. See

The leaves of Calypogeia are incubous.

incubous ‎(not comparable)

(botany) Describing an arrangement of leaves such that distal (anterior) parts of older leaves overlap the proximal (posterior) parts of younger ones.
- 1966, Rudolf M. Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume I, page 482
  If the apical cell is slightly postically displaced, an incubous orientation of the leaf rudiments ensues […]

describing an arrangement of leaves such that distal parts of older leaves overlap the proximal parts of younger ones