81 
or in combination; such a thing as a new element or gene can never be 
produced. Their phenomenal appearances are, therefore, altered; but their 
real entities are unchangeable, and always remain the same as before. Con- 
sistently with this idea, the mutual relation between species or organs becomes 
explainable by the participation theory, which I shall explain later on. 
GoETHE’S opinion, therefore, sometimes inclines to the evolution theory, and 
sometimes to the participation theory; but it is indisputable that his idea 
that a leaf and a petal are but modifications of one and the same organ comes 
from his cherished ‘“ Hinheit des Alles,” and I think that his “ Metamorphose 
der Pflanzen” is, as I have stated above, an explanation of this idea as 
illustrated by the phenomena of the vegetable world. This view of mine is 
quite different from the interpretations of various authors who regard the 
vegetable organs (leaf, sepal, stamen or pistil) as modifications of some ideal 
or theoretical form, or of a foliage leaf. GorrHE’s thought is, so far as I can 
judge, that the leaf and the petal are one and the same thing in real entity 
but different in shape. He said, therefore, that a leaf is changeable into a petal 
and a petal into a leaf, and even in the case where we see a leaf changing 
into a petal, we do not see any thing new which was not there before. Every 
thing expressed in a leaf is here manifested in a petal, but in a different 
shape. This idea of Gorrsn’s has often been interpreted by later scholars as 
an idea of the evolutionary theory.* But I can not agree with this position. 
His thought is, at any rate, a “ Einheitslehre” and is that which should be 
explainable by a theory which I shall expound immediately further on. 
In order to interpret Gorrun’s idea in his “ Metamorphose der Pflanzen”, 
I now desire to propose a theory which I will call the participation theory**. 
It is in fact but one theory, yet for convenience’ sake I shall treat it as two, 
namely :—the theory of the mutual participation of the gene, and the theory 
of the mutual sharing of the gene***. Literally speaking, the word “ participa- 
tion’ seems to express a united action of genes to produce a certain result. 
* Cony, F.-- Die Pflanzen (1896) p. 122. 
** In formulating this theory, I have been influenced by a suggestion from Tenpa1’s theory 
of mutual participation. i 
**& As to what is the gene, readers are requested to refer to two similes given on pp. 83-84 
of the present paper. 
