Also -isation. [n. of action f. as prec. + -ATION; cf. F. fertilisation.] The action or process of rendering fertile.
1863. J. G. Murphy, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Genesis, xii. 11. The definite area of the arable ground on the two sides of the Nile, its fertilization by a natural cause without much human labour, the periodical regularity of the inundation, and the extraordinary abundance of the grain crops, combined both to multiply the population with great rapidity, and to accelerate amazingly the rise and growth of fixed institutions, and a stable government.
b. spec. Biol. Fecundation; see FERTILIZE 2.
1837. Whewell, Hist. Induct. Sc., III. 261. Remarkable circumstances respecting the fertilization of the date-palms in Assyria.
1862. Darwin, Fertil. Orchids, i. 33. All these species require the aid of insects for their fertilisation.
1882. Vines, Sachs’ Bot., 525. The first manifest result of fertilisation in the oospore is the division of its nucleus.
Hence Fertilizational a., of or pertaining to fertilization.
1888. J. T. Gulick, in Linn. Soc. Jrnl., XX. 233. I venture to call this principle Fertilizational Segregation.
