238 DR. CARUS ON THE KINGDOMS OF NATURE, 



entirely different from the former, but in a continually progressive trans- 

 formation of the original types, a succession of metamorphoses, on the 

 nature of which we have received the most interesting information in 

 the excellent observations of Goethe*. It appears that while the first 

 rough type, as it were, of the whole plant is contained in the coatings or 

 leaves of tlie seed (cotyledons), which abound with a gross and yet 

 unelaborated sap ; the same type is manifested more plainly in the 

 successive divisions of the stem (internodia), and in the leaves, in which, 

 when we compare the upper with the lower leaves which surround the 

 stem, its progressive improvement becomes very distinctly evident. 

 As soon as the plant has formed its leaves, which perform the functions 

 of the organs of respiration and secretion, and has thus purified its 

 fluids, it goes on to produce the flower, which is its most complete 

 organ, entirely under the influence of the light. Even this transition is 

 not performed suddenly, but is prepared by the formation of the calyx, 

 wherein the leaves of the stem begin to contract themselves, while they 

 unite in greater numbers around a common axis in the same plane : this 

 formation shows itself most evidently in the collective calyx of flowers 

 belonging to the class Syngenesia, in which the pappus performs the 

 function of the calyx of single flowers. Moreover, the calyx itself 

 constitutes the most evident transition to the corolla, the functions 

 of which it often performs ; and the corolla is only a finer calyx for the 

 organs of generation, Avliich, as the most compact and perfect organs, 

 issue forth from their last organ of development and preparation, as 

 from a covering which they have last thrown aside. It is a remarkable 

 fact, and one which places the correctness of these views beyond doubt, 

 that too rich a nourishment, and the accumulation of too many fluids 

 not yet properly purified, may cause a retrograde organization of these 

 parts ; the organs of generation may be transformed into flower-leaves 

 (as in double flowers), the leaves of the calyx may be changed back 

 again into leaves of the stem (as is often the case in the calyx of the 

 rose), and instead of the organs of generation, a new shoot or internodiura, 

 bearing a new flower, may appear (as in the proliferous roses or Rose- 

 kings f ). When, after such successive progression, the plant has reached 

 the highest point of polarity between root and flower (gravitation and 

 light), between which the stem and leaves may be considered as mere 

 connecting links, similar in their function to that of the epidermis be- 

 tween the cellular system and the system of the spiral vessels, the same 

 opposition appears once more under the form of male and female sta- 

 mina ; the latter of which, as containing the germ of a new plant (the 

 seed), belong more to the reproductive system, and stand more under 

 the influence of the earth. Wherefore the inferior plants, such as 



• Versuch die Metamorphose der Planzen zu erkldren. Gotha, 1 790. Re- 

 printed in the Hefte zur Naturwissenschaft und Morphologie, 1817, i. 

 [t Rosenkonigen, Germ.] 



