524 
BOOK VI. 
MORPHOLOGY ; OR, OF THE METAMORPHOSIS OF 
ORGANS. 
That part of botany which treats of the gradual transmu- 
tation of leaves into the various organs of a plant, which shows 
that bracts are leaves affected by the vicinity of the fructifi- 
cation, that the calyx and corolla are formed by the adhesion 
and verticillation of leaves, that the filament is a form of 
petiole, and the anther of blade ; and, finally, that the ovary 
itself is a convolute leaf, with its midrib lengthened into a 
style, and the extremity of its vascular system denuded under 
the form of stigma, is called morphology. This doctrine has 
already been treated of in this work, in connection with the 
different organs of which mention has been made ; but it is so 
curious and important as to deserve especial mention. 
By Miquel its origin has been ascribed to Aristotle and 
Theophrastus ; but on no sufficient grounds, unless we suppose 
it to be a mere modification of the Aristotelian theory, that 
nature always advances from imperfect forms to those of a 
more perfect nature. 
The first distinct idea of the subject appeared in the second 
volume of the tenth edition of the Systema NaturcB^ pub- 
lished in 1759, in w^hich Linnaeus thus expresses himself: — 
" Leaves are the creation of the present year, bracts of the 
second^ calyx of the third, petals of the fourth, stamens of the 
fifth, and the stamens are succeeded by the pistil. This is 
