integument

n.

1. A natural outer covering or coat, such as the skin of an animal or the membrane enclosing an organ.
2. Botany. The envelope of an ovule.

[Latin integumentum, from integere, to cover : in-, on; see in-² + tegere, to cover.]

integumentary in·teg'u·men'ta·ry (-mĕn'tə-rē, -mĕn'trē) adj.

noun

The tissue forming the external covering of the body: epidermis, skin. See surface/depth.

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A covering or investment; the skin.

• avian i. — consists of a thin dry skin (dermis and epidermis) plus appendages (feathers, uropygial gland, comb, wattles, beak, leg scales, spurs, toepads).
• common i. — the skin and skin derivatives such as horn, hooves and feathers.
• mammalian i. — consists of epidermis, derived from ectoderm, and dermis and hypodermis, derived from mesoderm; specializations of the epidermis produce glands, hair, hooves, horn, callosities, pads.

The coating of an ovule that becomes the skin of a seed.

IN BRIEF: Something that covers or encloses.

When all the fields around lay bound and hoar, Beneath a thick integument of snow. — Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), U.S. writer.