SPORE, in botany, may be called the seed of a eryptcgamotts plant. as it serves the same purpose of reproduction es the seed of a phanerogamous ar flowering plant, and after ramaining for a time in a state of rest, is developed into a new plant on the occurrence of the necessary conditions. A spore, however, differs very much from the seed of a phancrogamons plant, as it always consists of a singe cell, and therefore does not con tain any embryo or rudiment of the future plant. In its formation, it corresponds rather with the grains of pollen in the anther of a flower. Spores are small, often so minute as to be invisible to the naked eye—many of them extremely minute, so that they inay be wafted about unperceived. This, indeed, might be expected from the very small size of many of the cryptogamic plants themselves, as moulds and many other fungi. But even the spores of the largest ferns, are very small. Spores often remain
capable of germination for many years, and they seem to be capable of enduring much drought without destruction. They seem to germinate indifferently from any part of their surface, in which they differ essentially from the seeds of phanerogamous plants. In the parent plant, they are eitherscattered singly, or are united in a fruit-like envel ope, which is generally known as a sporangium, or In some plants they are united in definite numbers, as of four (atetraspore), surrounded by an envelope (perispore, or sporidium). The peculiar reproductive organ, which in some,cryptogamous plants produces the spores, is called a sporocarp, or a sporophore. In many plants, as in mush rooms, the production of spores belongs exclusively to a part of the plant called the hymenium.