8o SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



stem, we recognise a definite contrast between stem and 

 leaf: the stem is axial in nature, the leaves lateral and 

 appendicular. Turning now to the flower, we perceive 

 that, unlike the leaf, it is not borne laterally upon the stem, 

 but terminally on a branch. An analysis of the flower 

 shows that it itself consists of an axial and of appendicular 

 parts, the latter presenting widely different forms which are 

 distinguished as the sepals forming the calyx, the petals 

 forming the corolla, the stamens forming the androecium, 

 and, finally, the carpels forming the gynaeceum or pistil. 

 The flower is, in fact, a shoot characterised by its limited 

 apical growth, by its undeveloped internodes, and by the 

 reproductive organs which it bears. 



We are now in possession of a sufficient body of facts 

 to enable us to proceed with an exposition of Meta- 

 morphosis. But before doing so I must point out that this 

 term has not always been used in one and the same sense. 

 It was first introduced into botanical language by Linnaeus, 1 

 but he himself applied it to various phenomena ; at one 

 time to the flowering of plants, in which he finds an analogy 

 with the change of the chrysalis of an insect into the 

 butterfly ; at another to the production of varieties and 

 monstrosities ; again, to the development of a plant from a 

 seed or from a bulb ; and, finally, he applies it (in the 

 Philosophia Botanica), though vaguely, somewhat in the 

 sense in which we are now about to consider it. It was 

 not until forty years after its first use by Linnaeus that the 

 application of the term was clearly limited ; and then, not 

 by a botanist, but by a poet — Goethe, in the following 

 words : 2 " (§ i) Every one who in any degree observes the 

 growth of plants will readily notice that certain of their 

 external parts frequently show a change, assuming either 

 entirely or to a greater or less degree the form of adjacent 

 parts. (§2) For instance, the simple flower becomes a 

 double one, petals developing in the place of stamens and 



1 Sy sterna Naturce, ii., 1735; Philosophia Botanica, 1751 (p. 301 in 

 Willdenow's edition, 1790; p. 355 in Quesne's French edition of 1788); 

 "Metamorphosis Plantarum" (Dahlberg) 1756, in Amoen. Acad., iv. 



2 Versuch die Metamorphose der Pflanzen zu erklaren, Gotha, 1790. 



