GOETHE S ESSAY ON THE METAMORPHOSIS OF PLANTS. 
347 
GOETHE’S ESSAYS ON THE METAMORPHOSIS OF PLANTS. 
{Translated from the German by Edward Ortgies.) 
(Continued from Page 315.) 
30. If there is a surplus supply of food, this operation will necessarily be carried on, 
and a flowering period becomes almost impossible. In withdrawing food, therefore, we 
assist and accelerate nature ; the organs become refined, the action of the digested sap is 
more powerful, the transformation of the organs becomes possible, and usually goes on 
without interruption. 
IV. Formation of the Calyx. 
31. Sometimes this transformation proceeds with great rapidity, and in this case the 
stem, from the base of the last perfect leaf, all at once shoots up, elongated and thinner, 
and collects at its extremity several leaves around its axis. 
32. That the leaves of the calyx (sepals) are really quite the same organs which, until 
now, appeared to us stem leaves. They now, however, often assume a very different 
character, by being placed around a common centre ; this may be proved in the most 
evident manner. 
33. We have in the Cotyledons already observed a resembling action of nature, in 
seeing several leaves or even several buds collected around a common axis. Many 
species of Conifer® produce in germinating, a radiating circle of unmistakable leaves, 
which, contrary to the general formation of Cotyledons, are already greatly developed ; 
and we see in the very infancy of these plants the first slight traces of that power of 
nature, by which at a more mature age the inflorescence is produced. 
34. Moreover, we find in several plants the stem leaves, without being greatly altered, 
brought together underneath the corolla, forming a sort of calyx. As they still bear their 
perfect shape, it will suffice to refer to our eyesight, and to the botanical term of “ floral 
leaves ” (bracts), which has been given to them. 
35. With deeper attention we have to study the case already mentioned, wdiere the 
transition to the flowering period proceeds slowly ; the cauline leaves transforming and 
contracting by degrees, and as if gently insinuating themselves into the calyx ; this we 
may readily observe in the calyx of the Sunflower, Calendula, and many others. 
36. This power of nature, which collects several leaves around a common centre, shows 
us a still more intimate combination, and renders this collection of leaves still more 
indiscernible, by uniting them either partly or wholly. These leaves, lying so closely 
together, and touching each other in their infant state, become more or less united by 
anastomose through the influence of the greatly purified sap now contained in the plant, 
and thus form the campanulate, or so-called monosepalous calyx ; but the incisions, more 
or less deep, show us still its compound origin. We may convince ourselves of this fact, 
by comparing a number of deeply-incised monosepalous calyxes with polysepalous ones ; 
specially in watching the formation of the calyx in Synanther®. So we shall see that the 
calyx of Calendula officinalis, which in botanical terms is described as simple and multi- 
partite, consists, in fact, of several united leaves, adding contracted cauline leaves, which, 
as it were, stole themselves into the formation of the calyx, as we have mentioned before. 
37. In many plants the number and shape in which the leaves of the calyx (sepals), 
whether separate or compound, are placed around their axis, is constant, as well as the 
number of the following parts. In other plants the number and shape of these parts is 
not so constant ; but even this irregularity could not escape the keen eyes of observant 
botanists, and they have succeeded in bringing these deviations of nature into a narrower 
compass, by a more careful inquiry into their character. 
38. In this manner, therefore, nature forms the calyx, by producing several leaves, and 
consequently several buds, around a common centre, mostly of a certain fixed number and 
order, which otherwise would have been produced in succession, and at some distance from 
each other. If the flowering period had been hindered by a superfluous supply of nourish- 
