Er uli rea cl Uc cone ey ca eed ioc os ead e 
orae = fogs 
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-Presenting in all respects the form and size of the ordinary leaves, 
GOETHE ON THE METAMORPHOSIS OF PLANTS. 335 
986, Nature's power of collecting a number of leaves round a -com- 
Mon axis is seen to produce even a closer union, so as to render these 
clustered and modified leaves still more difficult. to reeognize;. that is 
to say, it unites the edges of one with the other, often entirely, but 
frequently only in part. The crowded and closely-pressed leaves are 
brought into the nearest contact with each other while yet in a tender 
state, an anastomosis is effected by the operation of the elaborated 
juices which the plant now contains, and they thus form a bell-shaped 
or so-called monosepalous calyx, which betrays its compound origin’ by 
‘the manner in which its border is more or less incised or divided. We 
may find evidence of this by comparing a number of deeply-divided 
valyces with polysepalous ones, especially if we attentively consider 
the common calyces (involucres) of many Composite flowers. ‘Thus, 
We shall find that the calyx of a Marigold, which is defined in syste- 
‘matic descriptions as simple and much divided, consists both of 
attached and imbricated leaves, amongst which, as we said above, di- 
Minished stem-leaves have, as it were, insinuated themselves. 
» 87. In many plants the number and form in which the calyx-leaves 
(sepals), whether distinct or united, are arranged round the axis of the 
stalk, is constant, the same regularity being observable in the other sub- 
Sequent organs. On this constancy of character depend, in great part, 
the progress, stability, and reputation of botanical science, which of 
late years has been making continual advances. There are, indeed, in- 
-Stances in which the number and form of these parts are not equally 
Constant; yet even this inconstancy has not baffled the keen powers of 
observation which distinguish the masters of this science ; they have 
‘endeavoured, by means of exact definitions, to impose a strict limit, so 
o speak, within which these aberrations of nature are restrained.* 
» 88. Nature has thus formed the calyx by uniting together, around a 
Common centre, generally in a certain definite number and order, many 
leaves, and consequently many nodes, which she had previously pro- 
duced in succession, and at some distance from each other Should, 
however, the flowering-period have been checked by an excessive and 
Mie pure 
i ot tne 44 3 
Eea oda the: ts tet "ie — Jeaves,... (Vid. 
V" Galys ie ple acm atc a bli proxime pd. pensedntiun?, (Wal, 
Similar ch 
anges in the scales of the strobile 
tn 
Lu 
gX 
; Valyx tune plane non . | 
Theoria Generationis,’ 1759, § 114.) 
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