1 62 Morphology under the Doctrine of [BOOK i. 



manifold physiological differences in the organs of plants 

 certain points of formal agreement can be discovered, which 

 are expressed chiefly in the order of their succession and in 

 their relative positions. In this distinction lay the good kernel 

 of the doctrine of metamorphosis in Goethe, and Wolff, and 

 even in Linnaeus and Cesalpino : it was only necessary to set 

 this free from the dross with which the nature-philosophy had 

 surrounded it, and to make the relations of position in organs 

 the subject of earnest investigation, in order to secure im- 

 portant results in this branch of morphology. The first step 

 in this direction was taken by Carl Friedrich Schimper, who 

 was followed by Alexander Braun ; both adopted the main 

 idea of the doctrine of metamorphosis in the form in which it 

 can be reconciled with the doctrine of constancy, that is, in 

 a purely idealistic sense. Both liberated themselves from the 

 gross errors of the nature-philosophers, and thus gave a more 

 logical expression to the purely idealistic morphological con- 

 sideration of form in plants. 



KARL FRIEDRICH SCHIMPER 1 founded before the year 1830 

 the theory of the arrangement of leaves which is named after 

 him, and which he expounded to the naturalists assembled at 

 Stuttgart in 1834 as a complete and perfected system. Alex- 

 ander Braun, in a review of Schimper's exposition in ' Flora ' 

 of 1835, gave a clear and simple account of the theory, having 

 already himself published an excellent and comprehensive 

 treatise on the same subject. The doctrine of phyllotaxis 



1 K. F. Schimper, born in Mannheim in 1803, was at first a student 

 of theology in Heidelberg, but having afterwards travelled as a paid col- 

 lector of plants in the south of France, he applied himself to the study 

 of medicine. From 1828 to 1842 he was employed as a teacher in the 

 University of Munich, though occasionally engaged in exploring the Alps, 

 Pyrenees, and other districts, in the service of the King of Bavaria. It was 

 during this period of his life that he composed his most important works on 

 phyllotaxis, and essays on the former extension of glaciers, and on the glacial 

 period. He returned to the Palatinate in 1842, and died at Schwetzingen in 

 1867 in the enjoyment of a pension from the Grand duke of Baden. 



