salivary gland, any one of three pairs of glands secreting into the mouth, thus aiding the digestive process. The salivary glands are the parotid, the submandibular, and the sublingual. They are racemose structures consisting of numerous lobes subdivided into smaller lobules connected by dense areolar tissue, vessels, and ducts. The sublingual gland secretes mucus; the parotid gland, serous fluid; and the submandibular gland, both mucus and serous fluid. The lobules of the salivary glands are richly supplied with blood vessels and fine plexuses of nerves. The hilum of the submandibular gland contains Langley’s ganglion of nerve cells.
