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The act by which, either in animals or plants, material prepared by the generative organs the female organism is brought in contact with matter from the organs of the male, so that a new organism results; impregnation; fertilization.

Self-impregnation. Darwin.

A term collectively applied to the changes or conditions preceding fecundation, especially to the changes which the ovum undergoes before fecundation.

Fertilization of two ova, at the same menstruation, by two different acts of coition.

A process of fecundation in which the pollen tube penetrates to the embryosac through the tissue of the chalaza, instead of entering through the micropyle. It was originally discovered by Treub in Casuarina, and has since been found to occur regularly in the families Betulaceæ and Juglandaceæ. Partial chalazogamy is fo…

owers the pollen renders the ovule fertile, or an analogous process in flowerless plants; fecundation; impregnation. Close fertilization (Bot.), the fertilization of pistils by pollen derived from the stamens of the same blossom. -- Cross fertilization, fertilization by pollen from some other blossom. See under Cross,…

of forming or producing fruit; the act of fructifying, or rendering productive of fruit; fecundation. The prevalent fructification of plants. Sir T. Brown.

The act of impregnating or the state of being impregnated; fecundation.

t during the last century, that the egg was the real animal germ, and that at the time of fecundation the spermatozoa simply gave the impetus which caused the unfolding of the egg, in which all generations were inclosed one within the other. Also called ovist.

Of or pertaining to prefecundation.

To deprive of the power of reproducing; to render incapable of germination or fecundation; to make sterile.

A female insect producing eggs from which young are hatched, though there has been no fecundation by a male; a parthenogenetic insect. The Virgin, or The Blessed Virgin, the Virgin Mary, the Mother of our Lord. -- Virgin's bower (Bot.), a name given to several climbing plants of the genus Clematis, as C. Vitalba of Eu…