il-2 HISTORY OF PHYSIOLOGY. 



tog-ether present somewhat the appearance of an animal's face ; and 

 the upper portion of the corolla is prolonged backwards into a tube 

 like "spur." No flower can be more irregular; but there is a singulai 

 variety of this plant, termed Peloria, in which the corolla is strictl} 

 symmetrical, consisting of a conical tube, narrowed in front, elongatec 

 behind into five equal spurs, and containing five stamens of equal 

 length, instead of the two unequal pairs of the clidynamous Linaria. 

 These and the like appearances show that there is in nature a capacity 

 for, and tendency to, such changes as the doctrine of metamorphosis . 

 asserts. 



Gothe's Metamoiyrfiosis of Plants was published 1790 : and his sys- 

 tem was the result of his own independent course of thought. The 

 view which it involved was not, however, absolutely new, though it had 

 never before been unfolded in so distinct and persuasive a manner. 

 Linn sens considered the leaves, calyx, corolla, stamens, each as evolved 

 in succession from the other ; and spoke of it as 2^'olepsis or anticipa- 

 tion, 6 when the leaves changed accidentally into bractese, these into a 

 calyx, this into a corolla, the corolla into stamens, or these into the 

 pistil. And Caspar Wolf apprehended in a more general manner the 

 same principle. " In the whole plant," says he, 6 " we see nothing but 

 leaves and stalk ;" and in order to prove what is the situation of the 

 leaves in all their later forms, he adduces the cotyledons as the first 

 leaves. 



Gothe was led to his system on this subject by his general views of 

 nature. He saw, he says, 7 that a whole life of talent and labor was 

 requisite to enable any one to arrange the infinitely copious organic 

 forms of a single kingdom of nature. " Yet I felt," he adds, " that for 

 me there must be another way, analogous to the rest of my habits. 

 The appearance of the changes, round and round, of organic creatures 

 had taken strong hold on my mind. Imagination and Nature appeared 

 to me to vie with each other which could go on most boldly yet most 

 consistently." His observation of nature, directed by such a thought, 

 led him to the doctrine of the metamorphosis. 



In a later republication of his work (Zur Morphologic, 1817,) he 

 gives a very agreeable account of the various circumstances which 

 affected the reception and progress of his doctrine. Willdenow* quoted 



5 Sprengel, Sot. ii. 302. Amcen. Acad. vi. 324, 365. 



" Nov. Con. Ac. Petrop. xii. 403, xiii. 478. 



T Z-ir Morph. i. 80. * Zur Morph. i. 121. 



