fertilization tube (fertilizashontub)

In fungi of the family Per ono sporeæ, the beak-like tube which is put out by the antheridium and penetrates into the oögonium, conveying the protoplasm of the antheridium to the oösphere. fertilize (fer'ti-līz), v. t.; pret. and pp. fertilized, ppr. fertilizing. [= F. fertiliser = Sp. Pg. fer tilizar = It. fertilizzare; as fertilc + -ize.] 1. To make fertile; enrich, as soil; make fruitful or productive, in general; fecundate: as, to fer tilize land, the imagination, etc. A translator of rare competence, Mr. Hastie is also 80 indefatigable as apparently to have determined not to rest till he has turned the fertilising stream of German thought upon every field of philosophical inquiry which his countrymen have been cultivating with modest means-and but moderate succe . Mind, XIII. 130. 2. In biol., to render capable of development by the introduction of the male germ-element; impregnate. Here and there great bunches of flowers hang down, breaking out abruptly from the stems of tall palms for the benefit of the fertilising visits of the large lustrous Mivart , Nature and Thought, p. 3. butterflies. The word fertilize is employed as equivalent to impregnate [in bee-keeping]. Phin , Dict. Apiculture, Int., p. x. Also spelled fertilise .