Emily Dickinson Lexicon

THYRSE, or THYR'SUS, n. [L. thyrsus; Gr. θυρσος.]

1. In botany, a species of inflorescence; a panicle contracted into an ovate form, or a dense or close panicle, more or less of an ovate figure, as in the lilac. Martyn. Smith.
2. A panicle, whose middle branches are longer than those of the base and apex. Lindley.