Read Online The Metamorphosis of Plants by J. W. v. Goethe - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: J. W. v. Goethe
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must look to the development of eyes.
95
We often see that stems, without preparing long beforehand or reserving their energy for the development of a single flower, bring forth blossoms already at their nodes, often continuing in this way uninterruptedly to the very tip. This may be explained however by the theory already propounded. All flowers developed from eyes may be regarded as distinct plants growing on the parent plant, just as the parent plant grows on the earth. Supplied, however, as they are with purer juices by the nodes, even the first leaves of the little twigs are much more finely formed than the first leaves of the parent plant which came after the cotyledons; indeed, even the immediate formation of calyx and flower is often possible.
96
Even these blossoms that develop out of eyes, had they received more copious nourishment, would have become twigs and have undergone a destiny similar to that of the parent plant.
97
During the development of such flowers from node to node, we notice too that same transformation of the stem-leaves which we observed when the transition to the calyx took place slowly. The leaves contract more and more, until at last they almost disappear. They are then called bracts, and have more or less lost their leaf-like form. Just in the same proportion as the stem becomes thinner, so do the nodes move closer together, and everything that happened in the transition to the calyx happens now, except that no particular terminal flower appears at the tip, because Nature has already fulfilled her task at each successive eye.
98
Now when we have contemplated well such a stem adorned at each node with a blossom, we shall more easily understand a composite flower, especially if we remember what has already been said about the origin of the calyx.
99
Nature forms a composite calyx, (involucre) from a number of leaves by pressing them close to one another and arranging them around an axis. With this same strong impulse of growth she develops, so to speak, one infinite stem, producing all its eyes at the same time and as near together as possible in the form of a flower, each separate floret fructifying the seed-vessel already prepared below it. Nor are the nodal leaves always entirely lost in this tremendous contraction. In thistles for example (compare Dipsacus laciniatus ), the little leaf faithfully accompanies the floret which grows from the eye situated close by it. In many grasses, too, each flower has such a leaflet, which in this case is called a glume.
100
So we are led to see that the seeds of a composite flower are true eyes, formed and developed by means of the male and female organs. We shall easily be convinced that this is so if, keeping this idea always in mind, we examine and compare the growth and manner of seeding of various plants.
101
Then, too, we shall not find it difficult to explain the seeds—whether enclosed within a seed-vessel or not—which are produced in the middle of a single flower. For it comes to the same thing if a single flower surrounds a compound ovary, whose united pistils suck in the fertilising juices from the anthers and pass them on to the ovules, or if each ovule has its own pistil, and anthers and petals.
102
We are convinced that with a little practice it would not be difficult to explain in this way the manifold forms of flowers and fruits. But it would of course require complete familiarity with the above stated ideas of expansion and contraction, approximation and anastomosis, to be able to apply them in their right place as one would use algebraic formulae. And as much depends on the exact observation and comparison of the various stages through which Nature passes, both in the forming of genera, species and varieties, and in the growth of each individual plant, a collection of illustrations made for this purpose with explanations of the different parts of the plant in botanical terminology would be both welcome and useful. Two strange
95
We often see that stems, without preparing long beforehand or reserving their energy for the development of a single flower, bring forth blossoms already at their nodes, often continuing in this way uninterruptedly to the very tip. This may be explained however by the theory already propounded. All flowers developed from eyes may be regarded as distinct plants growing on the parent plant, just as the parent plant grows on the earth. Supplied, however, as they are with purer juices by the nodes, even the first leaves of the little twigs are much more finely formed than the first leaves of the parent plant which came after the cotyledons; indeed, even the immediate formation of calyx and flower is often possible.
96
Even these blossoms that develop out of eyes, had they received more copious nourishment, would have become twigs and have undergone a destiny similar to that of the parent plant.
97
During the development of such flowers from node to node, we notice too that same transformation of the stem-leaves which we observed when the transition to the calyx took place slowly. The leaves contract more and more, until at last they almost disappear. They are then called bracts, and have more or less lost their leaf-like form. Just in the same proportion as the stem becomes thinner, so do the nodes move closer together, and everything that happened in the transition to the calyx happens now, except that no particular terminal flower appears at the tip, because Nature has already fulfilled her task at each successive eye.
98
Now when we have contemplated well such a stem adorned at each node with a blossom, we shall more easily understand a composite flower, especially if we remember what has already been said about the origin of the calyx.
99
Nature forms a composite calyx, (involucre) from a number of leaves by pressing them close to one another and arranging them around an axis. With this same strong impulse of growth she develops, so to speak, one infinite stem, producing all its eyes at the same time and as near together as possible in the form of a flower, each separate floret fructifying the seed-vessel already prepared below it. Nor are the nodal leaves always entirely lost in this tremendous contraction. In thistles for example (compare Dipsacus laciniatus ), the little leaf faithfully accompanies the floret which grows from the eye situated close by it. In many grasses, too, each flower has such a leaflet, which in this case is called a glume.
100
So we are led to see that the seeds of a composite flower are true eyes, formed and developed by means of the male and female organs. We shall easily be convinced that this is so if, keeping this idea always in mind, we examine and compare the growth and manner of seeding of various plants.
101
Then, too, we shall not find it difficult to explain the seeds—whether enclosed within a seed-vessel or not—which are produced in the middle of a single flower. For it comes to the same thing if a single flower surrounds a compound ovary, whose united pistils suck in the fertilising juices from the anthers and pass them on to the ovules, or if each ovule has its own pistil, and anthers and petals.
102
We are convinced that with a little practice it would not be difficult to explain in this way the manifold forms of flowers and fruits. But it would of course require complete familiarity with the above stated ideas of expansion and contraction, approximation and anastomosis, to be able to apply them in their right place as one would use algebraic formulae. And as much depends on the exact observation and comparison of the various stages through which Nature passes, both in the forming of genera, species and varieties, and in the growth of each individual plant, a collection of illustrations made for this purpose with explanations of the different parts of the plant in botanical terminology would be both welcome and useful. Two strange
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