382 NINETEENTH CENTURY, pt. Ill 



Since the time of Linnaeus botany had become very 

 popular, and the two celebrated French botanists, Antoine 

 de Jussieu and his son Bernard de Jussieu, had established 

 the Natural System of plants, which obliges men to observe 

 every part of a plant before placing it in a class or order. 

 You will remember that Linnaeus suggested this method (see 

 p. 2ii), but thought it too difficult for ordinary students, and 

 even to this day the Artificial System of Linnaeus is used 

 side by side with Jussieu's. 



The study of the Natural System, however, led botan- 

 ists to observe more carefully the nature of plants and the 

 manner in which they grow ; and when Goethe turned his 

 attention to botany he was very much struck with the 

 power which plants have of transforming or changing 

 the growth of their parts. For example, the common wild 

 rose in the hedges has a crown of pink petals, with stamens 

 and pistils in the centre; but the garden rose, which is 

 nothing more than the wild rose grown in a better soil, has 

 lost the stamens and pistils, or rather has changed them into 

 flower-leaves, so that the whole flower is one mass of petals, 

 and rarely forms any seeds. 



It is clear, therefore, said Goethe, that the stamens and 

 pistil of a plant are nothing more nor less than flower- leaves 

 transformed into a peculiar shape, so that they serve to form 

 seeds, and to carry on the life of the plant. And this is 

 true of all the different parts of the plants. Wherever you 

 look in the vegetable kingdom, you will find that every part 

 of a plant is nothing more than stem or leaves altered in 

 various ways to suit the work they have to do. Thus the 

 stem of a geranium, the trunk of a tree, the twining stalk 

 of the vine, the straw of wheat, the thorns of a rose-bush, 



