CH. XXXVII. THE METAMORPHOSIS OF PLANTS. 383 



the runners of a strawberry, the roots of plants, and the 

 fleshy potato, are all only different forms of stems and 

 branches. Again, the two cotyledons of a seed which are 

 well seen in the halves of a bean are but the first pair of 

 leaves. Out of them grows the stem, and out of this, leaves 

 of different forms according to the peculiar species of 

 plant. 



Then, as the plant developes, come the buds of the flower, 

 but these again are only stems and leaves growing more 

 thickly together. We find in different plants every variety 

 of flower from mere green leaf-like blossoms to the most 

 gorgeous colours. The green leaves called sepals, which 

 lie under the yellow petals in the buttercup, are transformed 

 into brilliantly coloured petals in the tulip, while in some 

 cases, such as occasionally in white clover, the whole flower, 

 sepals, petals, pistil and stamens, has been known to be 

 changed into little leaflets growing as if upon a branch. 



For this reason gardeners find it possible to cultivate a 

 plant so that it shall be all leaves and no flower, or, on the 

 other hand, shall have a gorgeous flower while the leaves 

 remain small and insignificant ; or, as in the potato or the 

 turnip, they can increase the size of the root at the expense 

 of the leaves and flowers. And thus we are led to see that 

 all the different parts of a plant are only peculiar transfor- 

 mations of simple stems and leaves, such as we find in 

 mosses and the lowest forms of plants. 



This beautiful truth of the transformation or metamor- 

 phosis of plants we owe to the poet Goethe ; for though 

 Linnaeus suggested it rather vaguely in some of his writings, 

 and a botanist named Wolff seems also to have taught it, 

 yet it was Goethe's essay on the ' Metamorphosis of Plants,' 



