W 
8 GOETHE ON THE METAMORPHOSIS OF PLANTS. 
nature is facilitated and hastened ; the organs of the nodes (leaves) be- 
come more refined in texture, the action of the purified juices becomes 
stronger, and the transformation of parts having now become possible, 
takes place without delay. 
IV. On the Formation of the Calyx. 
31. This transformation often takes place rapidly ; the stem at once 
becomes tapering and delicately-formed, and shoots upwards from the 
node at which the last perfect leaf was developed, terminating in a 
whorl of leaves collected round an axis. 
32. It appears to us a fact capable of the clearest proof, that the 
leaves of the calyx are the same organs as those whose formation we 
have hitherto been observing as stem-leaves; though now often in a 
very altered condition, and collected round a common centre. 
33. We have before observed, in the cotyledons, a similar operation ; 
and have seen a number of leaves, and thus obviously a number of 
approximated nodes, collected round a central point. The cotyledons 
of the Pine are a rayed circle of needle-shaped leaves already assuming 
a definite form; even in the earliest infancy of this plant, that vigour 
of constitution is, as it were, indicated, by which at a more advanced 
age the blossoms and fruit are to be produced.* 
34. We further see, in many flowers, unaltered stem-leaves collected 
together so as to form a kind of calyx immediately below the inflores- 
cence. That they are stem-leaves we need only appeal to the normal 
appearance still retained, and to botanical terminology, which desig- 
nates them by the name of Folia floralia (bracts). 
35. We must now observe the case in which the transition to the 
flowering-period proceeds slowly ; the stem-leaves gradually diminish 
in size, become altered in appearance, and gently insinuate themselves 
Into the calyx ; as may be very easily seen in the common calyx (involu- 
crum) of Composite flowers ; especially in Sunflowers and Marigolds.T 
* The force of the ar ument in this paragraph is destroyed by the researches of 
— ; a ante, sete to $ 16. EN ime 
e nature i i : * 
isis en ay T. 2" iru was pointed out by Jung, ‘ Isagoge Eby tonsopiaty 
imilar instances of imilarity 1 i à 
be of the close similarity that exists between the leaves, and the 
& an involucre, may be seen in many Umbelliferous plants; as the 
mem M ete. A remarkable instance la figured in the *Gardeners ? 
pe * ept. 1852, of a Dahlia, in which the bracts, or scales of the involuere, 
— p (scales) of the receptaele, instead of retaining their usual membranous 
» have all assumed the texture, colour, and veins of leaves ; even narrowing their 

