CHAPTER IX. 
BRANCH IIL. OOPHYTA. 
THE EGG-SPORE PLANTS. 
269. The distinguishing feature of the plants belonging 
to this division is that they develop a large cell (the odgone, 
or odgonium), differing from those about it in size and 
general appearance, which contains one or more rounded 
masses of protoplasm (the germ-cells), which are subse- 
quently fertilized by the contents of a second kind of spe- 
cial cell of much smaller size (the antherid, or antheridium). 
The odgone is the female reproductive organ, and the an- 
therid the male. The protoplasm of the latter is in some 
cases transferred by direct contact to the germ-cell; in 
other cases it first breaks up into motile bodies (the anther- 
ozoids), which then come to and unite with the germ-cell. 
270. The germ-cell itself is never motile, and in most 
cases it remains within the parent-plant until long after it 
is fertilized. The result of fertilization is the production 
of a resting spore (here called an odspore) which differs 
from the germ-cell structurally in having a hard and gen- 
erally colored coating, and physiologically in having the 
power of germination and growth after a period of rest of 
greater or less duration. 
271. The plants of this division vary greatly as to the 
development of the plant-body. In some cases it is a feebly 
united colony, while in its highest forms it is a well-devel- 
oped thallus, with even the beginning of a differentiation 
into Caulome, Phyllome, and Root. Most of them are 
