TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 137 



indebted for his opinions ; moreover such an origin of the fruit was assumed on 

 physiological grounds that are strikingly in accordance with modern views. In the 

 middle ages botany shared the fate of most other branches of learning ; but towards 

 the end of the 13th century, Albertus Magnus, a Dominican friar, wrote sundry 

 treatises on botanical as well as on other subjects, which prove him to have pos- 

 sessed ideas much in advance of his age. He directed attention to the relationship 

 existing between the simplicity of vegetable life and functions, and the nearly 

 homologous nature of the external and internal parts of plants. 



The systematic writers of the 16th and 17th centuries did not pay much atten- 

 tion to the theoretical construction of the flower, although they recognized the 

 foliar nature of the calyx and corolla. Joachim Jung, professor at Hamburg, who 

 died in 1657, seems to have understood the true nature of several parts of the plant, 

 such as the root and stem, compound flowers, &c. A century later, Wolf published 

 his ' Theoria Generationis,' — an essay remarkable for the account of the development 

 of the flower and its parts. The order of successive appearance in the different 

 whorls of the flower, as given by Wolf, is not in accordance with more recent in- 

 vestigations ; nor is his hypothesis, that the stamens are to be considered as buds 

 axillary to the petals, consonant with their true position with reference to the petals. 

 This notion, somewhat modified, however, has met with supporters in recent times, 

 in the persons of Agardh and Endlicher. Neither Linnaeus nor Goethe have ex- 

 pressed themselves so clearly on the subject of the metamorphosis of plants as Wolf 

 has done, who, after referring all the parts of the flower to the leaf type, says, " in 

 a word, we see nothing in the whole plant, whose parts at first sight differ so re- 

 markably from each other, but leaves and stem, to which latter the root is referable." 

 The proper mode of investigating the morphological nature of the organs of plants 

 is pointed out, and the formation of the flower is, in pursuance of this method, re- 

 ferred to a gradual diminution in the powers of vegetation. 



The chief points in the more widely known ' Prolepsis Plantarum' of Linnaeus, were 

 then alluded to, to show that Linnaeus, from original research in natural as well as 

 in abnormal formations, had arrived at the same result as Wolf had done from the 

 study of progressive development. 



Linnreus's inductions were marred by hypothetical assumptions as to the bud-like 

 nature of the petals, stamens, &c., the relationship between the whorls of the flower 

 and the layers of the stem, and the fanciful theory of anticipation. Linnaeus's re- 

 marks on the nature of buds, supported by a comparison with Volvox globator, is, 

 however, quite consistent with the modern doctrine of metagenesis. 



The essays of Wolf and Linnaeus were published so nearly at the same time, that 

 it is hardly possible to assign the priority to either in enunciating the foliar nature 

 of all the floral whorls, and of thus originating the modern doctrine of metamor- 

 phosis. Wolf's first essay preceded that of Linnaeus; his second essay, though 

 published six years subsequently to that of Linnaeus, is a revision of the first; and 

 in it is contained by far the clearest account of the morphology of the flower, — an 

 account deduced from the investigation not only of facts similar to those which led 

 Linnaeus to his conclusions, but also of the development of the flower — a line of re- 

 search which he had originated, and the results of which he had published before 

 the appearance of the ' Prolepsis.' For these reasons the author considered the chief 

 merit to be due to Wolf. 



Goethe's 'Essay on the Metamorphosis' was published thirty years after the 

 essays of Wolf and Linnaeus just referred to ; and although on many points Goethe 

 was anticipated by previous writers, there can be little doubt that with Goethe the 

 idea was an original one ; that from Linnaeus he gained, directly, little, from Wolf 

 nothing. Had it not been for Goethe's memoir, neither the essays of Wolf nor of 

 Linnaeus would have sufficed to establish the theory on so firm a basis as that on 

 which it now rests. Goethe considered the so-called nectaries as intermediate 

 stages between the petals and the stamens, explaining in this way the corona of 

 Narcissus, Passiflora, &c. This view is opposed to that of Schleiden. The author of 

 this paper adduced several circumstances based upon actual observation and upon 

 analogy, in support of the opinion held by Goethe. It is well known that DeCan- 

 dolle's classification of fruits was based on Goethe's explanation of the true nature 

 of this organ — wherein, however, the poet-philosopher was completely forestalled by 



