482 HISTORY OF PHYSIOLOGY. 



organic creatures had taken strong hold on my 

 mind. Imagination and Nature appeared to me to 

 vie with each other which could go on most boldly 

 yet most consistently." His observation of nature, 

 directed by such a thought, led him to the doctrine 

 of the metamorphosis. 



In a later republication of his work (Zur Mor- 

 phologie, 1817,) he gives a very agreeable account 

 of the various circumstances which affected the re- 

 ception and progress of his doctrine. Willdenow 8 

 quoted him thus, "The life of plants is, as Mr. 

 Gothe very prettily says, an expansion and con 

 traction, and these alternations make the various 

 periods of life." "This 'prettily?" says Gothe, 

 can be well content with, but the 'egregie* of Usteri 

 is much more pretty and obliging." Usteri had used 

 this term respecting Gothe in an edition of Jussieu. 



The application of the notion of metamorphosis 

 to the explanation of double and monstrous flowers 

 had been made previously, by Jussieu. Gothe's 

 merit was, to have referred to it the regular forma- 

 tion of the flower. And as Sprengel justly says 9 

 his view had so profound a meaning, made so strong 

 an appeal by its simplicity, and was so fruitful in 

 the most valuable consequences, that it was not to 

 be wondered at if it occasioned further examina- 

 tion of the subject ; although many persons pre- 

 tended to slight it. The task of confirming and 

 verifying the doctrine by a general application of it 



8 Zur Morph. i. 121. 9 Gesch. Botan. ii. 304. 





