Pl. -gonia. [mod.L., f. SPERMO- + Gr. γον- stem of γονή, γόνος offspring, etc. Cf. SPERMAGONIUM.]
1. Bot. One of the receptacles in lichens and fungi in which the spermatia are produced.
1857. Henfrey, Bot., 159. Smaller chambers, analogous in structure to the perithecia,… occur in the thallus of all Lichens…; they are called spermogonia.
1866. Treas. Bot., 1211/2. The pycnidia or spermogonia of different sporidiiferous lichens.
1887. W. Phillips, Brit. Discomycetes, 349. Spermogonia in the form of minute depressed tubercles.
2. Phys. A sperm-cell.
1913. J. W. Jenkinson, Vertebrate Embryol., 23. In the male sex the primordial germ-cells divide to form small cells, the spermogonia.
