iv] THE FLOWER AND METAMORPHOSIS 67 



in more advanced types, as do the foliage and flowers 

 in such plants as the Orchidaceae. But however 

 greatly they may differ, we must still hold the flower 

 and the vegetative shoot to be the ultimate con- 

 sequences of segregation of parts of the same original 

 type of shoot, to serve the two fundamental and 

 constant duties respectively of propagation and 

 nutrition. This is the most natural interpretation 

 of those structural resemblances, which are so obvious, 

 between the foliage-shoot and the flower which it 

 ultimately bears. There is no need now for any 

 theory of metamorphosis to explain the origin of the 

 Flower. As first stated by Goethe it was a theory of 

 mysticism, which was doomed to dissolution so soon 

 as the disclosure of the necessary facts made com- 

 parative study possible. 



52 



