1. A spore or spore-granule.
a. Bot. 1819. Lindley, trans. Richard’s Observ., 42. Sporules differ from seeds,… above all, in their want of embryo. Ibid. The rudiment of a sporule.
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., i. 5. After this fact one need not be surprised at the diffusion of the far lighter and smaller sporules of cryptogamic plants.
1875. Zoologist, X. 4416. The matter contained in the sporules of the genus Fucus is of a glutinous nature.
attrib. and Comb. 1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 313. Any sporule-case in Cellulares. Ibid. A cluster of sporule-like areolæ.
b. Zool. 1836–9. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., II. 433/2. In some animals these sporules are formed in all parts of the body indiscriminately. Ibid. The sporules of some Zoophytes.
1846. J. D. Dana, Zooph., v. (1848), 91. The sporules … which constitute the surface dots alluded to.
2. fig. A germ.
1861. Q. Rev., CX. 368. Mere words … necessarily contain the sporules of mighty principles.
Hence Sporuliferous a., bearing sporules.
1824. R. K. Greville, Flora Edin., p. lxxiii. Sporuliferous pulp not spontaneously emitted.
1847. Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, II. 214. The erect filaments are two lines in height,… with a houry sporuliferous head.
