Word Study
oöphore
CIDE DICTIONARY
oöphore, n. [Gr. egg-bearing; w,'o`n an egg + fe`rein to bear.].
An alternately produced form of certain cryptogamous plants, as ferns, mosses, and the like, which bears antheridia and archegonia, and so has sexual fructification, as contrasted with the sporophore , which is nonsexual, but produces spores in countless number. In ferns the oöphore is a minute prothallus; in mosses it is the leafy plant. [1913 Webster]
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