LINNiEUS 325 



to be cauliflower-seed, and had to pay damages when 

 only common cabbages came up. 



In another thesis there is a discussion of Linnaeus' 

 wonderful speculation concerning the Metamorphoses of 

 Plants, and what he calls Prolepsis (Anticipation), a 

 speculation based on the ancient doctrine that the pith 

 is a vital organ, which furnishes the substance of which 

 the seed is formed. Leaves, bracts, calyx, corolla, 

 stamens and pistil are supposed to represent the growth 

 of as many years. The bracts and calyx are outgrowths 

 of the cortex, the corolla of the bast, the stamens of the 

 wood, the pistil of the pith ; elsewhere the identification 

 is a little different.^ Linnaeus got the suggestion of his 

 Prolepsis from Cesalpini. 



THE SEXUAL SYSTEM OF PLANTS 



It was natural for Linnaeus to suppose that organs 

 universal in flowering plants, i.e. stamens and carpels, 

 would furnish the basis of a simple logical classification 

 of flowering plants. The number of the parts would of 

 course yield particularly easy characters, as Cesalpini 

 had seen long before, and Linnaeus accordingly made 

 number prominent in his system. He may possibly have 

 remarked that another part universal in flowering plants, 

 viz. the embryo, had yielded characters serviceable for 

 primary divisions, and that here too the divisions had 

 been founded upon number (of the cotyledons). Linnaeus 

 did not however trust to number alone, nor get all his 

 classes by counting stamens. The insertion of the 

 stamens, their inequalities of length, their occasional 

 union, their fusion with the styles, and the more or 

 less complete separation of the sexes were all attended 



^Prolepsis Plantarum, by Ullmark and Perber in Aman. Acad., Vol, VI; 

 introduction to Syatema Naturce. 



