heterogamy

n. [ See Heterogamous. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. (Bot.) The process of fertilization in plants by an indirect or circuitous method; -- opposed to orthogamy. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Biol.) That form of alternate generation in which two kinds of sexual generation, or a sexual and a parthenogenetic generation, alternate; -- in distinction from metagenesis, where sexual and asexual generations alternate. Claus & Sedgwick. [ 1913 Webster ]