The Endospore reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004
(provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Endospore

Sponsor with the world's largest charity for orphans
An endospore is a generalized term for a type of spore that is produced within an organism (usually a bacterium). The primary function of most endospores is to ensure the survival of a colony through periods of environmental stress.

Endospores are drought, temperature, and starvation tolerent. They are protected by a hardened shell of protein and carbohydrates and produced by a form of binary fission in bacteria.