Search the Dictionary

rimitive seminal cell, occuring in masses in the seminal tubules. It divides into a mass (spermosphere) of small cells (spermoblast), which in turn give rise to spermatozoids.

Spermlike; resembling sperm, or semen.

A spermoblast. -- Sper`ma*to"al, a. Owen.

Same as Spermospore.

Producing seed, or sperm; seminiferous; as, the so-called spermatophorous cells.

.); by the extreme reduction of the gametophyte; and by the development of seeds. All the Spermatophyta are heterosporous; fertilization of the egg cell is either through a pollen tube emitted by the microspore or (in a few gymnosperms) by spermatozoids. The phrase "flowering plants" is less distinctive than "seed plan…

Any plant of the phylum Spermatophyta. -- Sper`ma*to*phyt"ic (#), a.

Abnormally frequent involuntary emission of the semen without copulation.

Same as Spermospore.

a small, more or less ovoid head, with a delicate threadlike cilium, or tail. Called also spermatozoön. In plants the more usual term is antherozoid.

A spermatozoid.

Same as Spermatozoid.

Of or pertaining to sperm, or semen.

An achenium.

The theory, formerly held by many, that the sperm or spermatozoön contains the germ of the future embryo; animalculism.

erly current, of encasement in the male (see Encasement), in which the seminal thread, or spermatozoid, was considered as the real animal germ, the head being the true animal head and the tail the body.

One of the cells formed by the diivision of the spermospore, each of which is destined to become a spermatozoid; a spermatocyte; a spermatoblast.

The nucleus of the sperm cell.

The covering of a seed; -- sometimes limited to the outer coat or testa. Lindley.

A conceptacle of certain lichens, which contains spermatia.