26 GOETHE ON THE METAMORPHOSIS OF PLANTS. 
the calyx was produced, They gradually diminish in size, till at last 
they almost entirely disappear; the leaf-form is more or less lost in 
their diminished state, and they are called bracts. The stem becomes 
attenuated in the same proportion, the nodes approximate, and all the 
phenomena, before pointed out, take place, except that there is no de- 
cidedly terminal flower, because Nature has already fulfilled her task at 
each successive bud. | 
98. Now when we have well considered a stem thus adorned with a 
flower at every node, we shall be in a condition to understand a com- 
posite flower ; and the more easily if we remember what was stated 
above concerning the formation of the calyx. 
99. Nature forms a common calyx (involucre) out of a number of 
leaves which she draws close together and arranges round an axis. 
With the same strong impulsive growth she developes, if we may so 
speak, a stem without an end, producing all its axillary buds simulta- 
neously, and in the form of flowers, which are placed in the closest pos- 
sible proximity, each séparate floret fructifying its own germen. Nor 
are the node-leaves always lost in this instance of excessive contraction ; 
in Thistles, (as for instance in Dipsacus laciniatus,) the leaflet faithfully 
accompanies the floret which is developed from the contiguous bud. 
Tn many Grasses also, each floret is accompanied by a similar kind of 
leaflet, called a glume. 
100. We thus perceive how the seeds produced in a composite flower 
may be considered as true buds, formed and developed by means of the 
male and female organs. The examination of the growth and manner 
of fruiting of various plants will establish this view. 
101. This being so, we may easily draw the same inference as to the 
seeds produced in the centre of a single (non-composite) flower ; whether 
they are enclosed within a seed-vessel, or not.* For the argument is 
the same, whether a solitary flower encloses a compound ovary, whose 
united pistils imbibe the fertilizing moisture from the anthers, and con- 
vey it to the ovules; or whether a one-seeded ovary is provided with its 
Own pistil, anthers, and corolla. 
‚102. We are convinced that with a little praetice it would not be 
difficult to explain in this manner the manifold forms of fruits and 
— — Goethe probably had in view the one-seeded achenes of 
note to § 83, ; and other plants ranked as gymnospermous in his time. See 

