goethe’s essay on the metamorphosis of plants. 313 
not forget to make use of all the works of those contemporary authors who are the pride 
and honour of this noble science; it is to them that I deliver and dedicate these 
pages. 
[This essay was first published in the year 1790 ; it was reprinted in 1831, but Goethe 
did not fulfill the promises given in the above paragraph. It is greatly to be regretted 
that this truly great man — great as a poet, philosopher, naturalist, and historian, equally 
excelling in most of the different branches of science and literature — was prevented from 
bestowing more time and attention to morphology in his latter years. Finding himself 
unable to carry out his former intentions, and distracted by other literary and scientific 
pursuits, which completely occupied his time and thoughts, he added no original 
matter in the second edition, excepting a very interesting relation of . his early life and 
botanical studies, in order to explain how he was led by degrees to conceive first the idea 
of a metamorphosis, and how he followed it out. And then he gives a compilation of 
passages from other authors, to show the influence and development of his original ideas 
by other scientific botanists. Note of the Translator .] 
I. Of the Cotyledons. 
10. As we are determined to observe the gradual development of vegetable growth, 
we have to direct our attention to the plant in that very moment that it bursts forth 
from the seed. In this period we may correctly and easily distinguish all its proper 
parts. It leaves its envelopes more or less behind in the ground ; of these we shall take 
no further notice for the present. As soon as the radicle has taken hold in the ground, 
it pushes on and exposes to light the first organs of growth, which have been present 
already in the seed. 
11. These first organs are known as Cotyledons, or seminal leaves. 
12. They often appear deformed, as if filled with a raw matter, swelling out just as 
much in thickness as in breadth ; their vessels are hardly distinguishable from the mass 
of the whole ; they have little resemblance to a true leaf, and we might feel inclined to 
consider them as organs quite distinct from seed leaves. 
13. In many plants, however, they approach nearer to the shape of leaves ; they become 
more flat, and, exposed to light and air, assume the green colour to a greater degree ; 
their vessels become more distinct, and begin to resemble the ribs of leaves. 
14. Lastly, they appear to us as real leaves ; their vessels are capable of the most 
delicate development ; their resemblance with the succeeding leaves not allowing us to 
take them for proper organs, we call them, therefore, the first leaves of the stem. 
15. It is impossible to imagine a leaf without a node, and a node without a bud 
(gem), so we may come to the conclusion, that the point where the cotyledons join must 
be the first true budding point of a plant. This opinion is justified by plants which send 
forth branches immediately out of the axillae of the cotyledons, as Vicia, Faba, &c. 
16. The cotyledons are mostly double and opposite, and this causes us to make an 
observation which will as we proceed, appear of still greater importance. These leaves of 
the first bud are placed opposite, even when the succeeding leaves of the stem will be 
alternate. Here, therefore, appears a contraction and connexion of parts, which afterwards 
are standing aloof and separated. Still more curious it is when the cotyledons appear as 
many small leaves, collected around an axis, from where the stem rise, bearing the succeed- 
ing leaves solitary and alternate around itself ; which case may be closely examined in the 
Coniferse. Here we see the cotyledons form a sort of calyx, and we shall in future have 
to remember the present case when we shall find other analogous phenomena. 
17. Plants, which germinate with one seminal leaf only (Monocotyledones), we pass 
unnoticed for the present. 
18. But we have to observe that even such cotyledons as approach nearest to the 
formation of leaves, if compared with them, will always be found of less perfect development. 
Particularly their margin is more simple, and presents few traces of incisions, as their 
surface is void of hair or other proper vessels of perfect leaves. 
s s 
VOL. I. — NO. IX. 
