Pi"ne*al (?), a. [L. pinea the cone of a pine, from pineus of the pine, from pinus a pine: cf. F. pin'eale.]

Of or pertaining to a pine cone; resembling a pine cone.

Pineal gland Anat., a glandlike body in the roof of the third ventricle of the vertebrate brain; -- called also pineal body, epiphysis, conarium. In some animals it is connected with a rudimentary eye, the so-called pineal eye, and in other animals it is supposed to be the remnant of a dorsal median eye.

 

© Webster 1913.