PART III. 



METAMORPHY. 



Much of the objection with which Goethe's famous 

 essay on the * Metamorphosis of Plants ' was met on 

 its publication may be traced to a misapprehension of 

 the sense in which Goethe employed the word. As 

 used by him, it had nearly the same signification 

 as now applied to the word development by organo- 

 genists. It does not necessarily imply that there has 

 been a change in any particular organ, but rather that 

 there has been, to some extent, a change in the plan 

 of construction, in accordance with which a deviation 

 from the customary form results. The particular 

 organ was never anything else than what it is ; it has 

 not been metamorphosed in the ordinary sense of the 

 word ; for instance, in a double flower, where the 

 stamens are, as it is said, changed or metamorphosed 

 into petals, no absolute change really has taken place 

 the petal was never a stamen, although it occupies the 

 position of the latter, and may be considered a sub- 

 stitute for it. 



The term metamorphosis, then, really implies an 

 alteration in the organizing force, taking effect at a 

 very early period of the life of the flower, at or before 

 the period when the primitive aggregation of cells, of 

 which it is at that time composed, becomes separated 

 or *' diffbrentiated" into the several parts of the flower. 

 In other words, the " development" of the flower pur- 

 sues a different course from what is usual. In the 

 preceding sections the effects of arrest and of excess 

 in this process have been partly treated of; other devia- 

 tions arising from similar causes will be mentioned 



