GOETHE ON THE METAMORPHOSIS. OF PLANTS, 843 
compensates by its energy for what those vessels have lost in power of 
expansion ; if, when this pollen is set free, it immediately seeks the 
pistils (placed by nature in close proximity with the stamens), if it 
attaches itself to the pistils, and imparts its influence to them,—then 
are. we by no means averse to consider the union of the male and 
female organs as an ideal anastomosis,* and we think that, for the 
moment at least, we have brought the ideas of growth and reproduc- 
tion a step nearer to each other. 
t 64. The subtile substance which is organized in the anthers looks 
like mere powder, but the little pollen-grains are in fact nothing more 
or less than. vessels (cells) in which an extremely refined moisture is 
enclosed. We coincide, then, in the opinion of those who maintain that 
— this’ moisture is absorbed by the pistils to which the pollen-grains 
attach themselves, and that thus the fructification is effected. This 
appears the more probable, from the fact that some plants secrete no 
pollen-grains, bui moisture only.T +. 
«d 65, We are here reminded of the honey-like liquid of the nectaries, 
and its probable connection with the elaborated moisture contained in 
the pollen-grains. Perhaps the nectaries are preparatory organs, and 
their honey-like moisture may possibly be absorbed, perfected, and 
fully elaborated, by the anthers ; an opinion which derives greater pro- 
bability from the disappearance of this fluid after fructification has 
taken place.t 
66. We must not omit a cursory remark as to the different ways in 
‘which the filaments unite with each other in some flowers (Mona- 
delphia, etc), and the anthers in others (Syngenesia), exhibiting the 
most curious examples of anastomosis and combination between organs 
which at an earlier stage were perfectly distinct. 
red this far more certain than it was 
hy * Th 5 
, & the ti 
e e time when Goethe wrote. a karaiti 
the. falsity of the opinion stated in this paragraph. 
t Vaucher (Hist. Phys. Pl. ae A 
1 i int 
E 
highest importance to Orchids, by attracti 
‘tion-conld not be effected. — 
