A small gemma or bud of dormant embryonic cells produced by some freshwater sponges
The actual formation of gemmule's by fresh-water sponges is so clearly an adaptation to seasonal climatic changes, that at first it was reasonable to believe that seasonal alternation itself induced the gemmulation.
One of the imaginary granules or atoms which, according to Darwin's hypothesis of pangenesis, are continually being thrown off from every cell or unit, and circulate freely throughout the system, and when supplied with proper nutriment multiply by self-division and ultimately develop into cells like those from which they were derived
They are supposed to be transmitted from the parent to the offspring, but are often transmitted in a dormant state during many generations and are then developed
{i} gemma, leaf bud, budlike growth which separates from the parent plant to form a new plant (Botany); asexually produced mass of cells which may form into a new organism (Zoology)