89 



Here " cliese Kraft cler Natur " slioiilcl have the same meaning as I have 

 indicated above. Also in 38, GOETHE treats of the unity of a sepal and 

 other organs. The section runs as follows : 



\ 38. Die Natur bildet also im Kelcli kein neues Organ, sondern sie verbindet 



und modificirt nur die tins schon bekannt gewordenen Organe, xuid bereitet sicli 



dadurch eine Stufe niiher znm Ziel. 



It explains that the calyx is not at all a new thing ; it is only a modification 

 of what we had already been considering. In. other words, it is a different 

 combination of the genes which we had seen before. It means, in the end, 

 that the tilings which exist existed originally ; there is no such thing as the 

 creation of an absolutely new- thing. 



In 41, 42, 43 and 44, he sa}~s that a petal is also the same as a 

 foliage leaf and that there are transitional forms between the one and the 

 other. He states also that a foliage leaf passes over into a petal, without 

 passing through the calyx stage. According to my opinion, this does not 

 mean that a leaf changes into a petal, but it explains that there exists 

 a transition betw r ceu the petal and the leaf, just as there is unity in the 

 two. In 46 and 47, he goes on to discuss the unity of a petal and a 

 stamen and speaks of the transitional forms between the two. In 47, he 

 says : 



\ 47. Die Natur zeigt uns in einigen Fallen diesen Ubergang (tier Kronenbliitter 

 und Staubblatter) regelmiissig, z. B. bei der Canna, und mehreren Pflanzen dieser 

 Familie. Ein \vahres, \venig verandertes Kronenblatt zieht sich am obern Eande zusam- 

 men, und es zeigt sicli ein Staubbeutel, bei -welchem das iibrige Blatt die Stelle des 

 Staubfadens vertritt. 



As to the stamens of the Canna, it is stated, according to the current opinion*, 

 that the greater number of the organs which are to be originally stamens 

 turns into petaloidal ones (stamiuodes) of an ornamental character, but only 

 one of them retains imperfectly (one half) its original shape. In this, I do 

 not concur. According to my idea, it should not be said in this case that 

 organs which are originally destined to be stamens turn into petaloidal organs 

 (i.e. staminodes) ; but it would be correct to regard the real entities (of the 

 organs), which are to turn into any form whatever according to the causal 



* EICHI.KB, A. W. Blutlaendiagramme (Leipzig, 1875) p. 174. 



SCHUMANN, K. Praktikum far morphologische und systematische Botanik. (1904) pp. 

 545-546. 



