The protoplasm of the other protuberance divides into many small masses, furnished with cilia, the spermatozoids or male cells.

Each protuberance bursts, and some of the spermatozoids come in contact with and are absorbed by the oosphere, which then secretes a cell-wall, and after a time germinates.

In them there are these differences from the above process: the contents of the male cell, represented by the pollen, are not differentiated into spermatozoids, and there is no actual contact between the contents of the pollen tube and the germinal vesicle, but according to Strashurger, there is a transference of the substance of the nucleus of the pollen cell to that of the germinal vesicle by osmose.

Here, instead of the cell which is fertilized by the rounded spermatozoid producing a new plant through the medium of spores, some other cell which is quite distinct from the primarily fertilized cell carries on the reproductive process.

In Coleochæte, the male cell is a round spermatozoid, and the female cell an oosphere contained in the base of a cell which is elongated into an open and hair-like tube called the trichogyne.

The spermatozoid coalesces with the oosphere, which secretes a wall, becomes surrounded with a covering of cells called a cystocarp, which springs from cells below the trichogyne, and after the whole structure falls from the parent plant, spores are developed from the oospore, and from them arises a new generation.

In Dudresnaya, on the other hand, the spermatozoid coalesces indeed with the trichogyne, but this does not develop further.