CHAP, ii.] from Cesalpino to Linnaeus. 49 



quence of the Linnaean terminology, which neglected all 

 comparative examination. 



Moreover the doctrine of metamorphosis appears in a more 

 consistent and necessary form in Cesalpino than in the botanists 

 of the igth century before Darwin; it flows more immediately 

 from his philosophical views on the nature of plants, and 

 appears therefore up to a certain point thoroughly intelligible. 

 We may also consider as part of this doctrine in Cesalpino the 

 view that the substance of the seed (embryo and endosperm) 

 arises from the pith, because the pith contains the vital 

 principle *, and as the pith in the shoot is surrounded for pro- 

 tection by the wood and the bark, so the substance of the seed 

 is surrounded by the woody shell, and by the bark-like pericarp 

 or by a fruit-envelope answering to a pericarp. According to 

 Cesalpino therefore the substance of the seed with its capa- 

 bility of development springs from the pith, the woody shell 

 from the wood, the pericarp from the rind of the shoot. The 

 difficulty which arises from this interpretation, namely, that 

 in accordance with his theory the parts of the flower also, the 

 calyx, the corolla, and the stamens ought to spring from the 

 outer tissues of the shoot, he puts aside with the remark (p. 19) 

 that these parts of the flower are formed when the pericarp is 

 still in a rudimentary state ; that the pericarp is only fully 

 developed after these parts have fallen off, and that they are 

 so thin that there is nothing surprising in this view of the matter. 

 We see in Cesalpino's doctrine of metamorphosis without doubt 

 the theory of the flower afterwards adopted by Linnaeus, 

 though in a somewhat different form. That Linnaeus himself 

 regarded the theory ascribed to him on the nature of the flower 



1 We find it stated in Theophrastus that if the pith of the vine is de- 

 stroyed the grapes contain no stones ; this evidently points to a still higher 

 antiquity for the view that the seeds are formed from the pith ; see the De 

 causis plantarum, v. ch. 5, in the ' Theophrasti quae supersunt opera' of 

 Schneider, Leipzig, 1818. 



E 



