Dr. Hooker says, “I derive my idea of his having a better knowledge of the subject than most Botanists admit, not only from the Prolepsis, but from his paper called Reformatio Botanices (Amœn. Acad. vol. vi.); a remarkable work, in respect of his candor in speaking of his predecessors’ labors, and the sagacity he shows in indicating researches to be undertaken or completed. Amongst the latter is V. ‘Prolepsis plantarum, ulterius extendenda per earum metamorphoses.’ The last word occurs rarely in his Prolepsis; but when it does it seems to me that he uses it as indicating a normal change and not an accidental one. [637]
“In the Prolepsis the speculative matter, which Linnæus himself carefully distinguishes as such, must be separated from the rest, and this may I think be done in most of the sections. He starts with explaining clearly and well the origin and position of buds, and their constant presence, whether developed or not, in the axil of the leaf: adding abundance of acute observations and experiments to prove his statements. The leaf he declares to be the first effort of the plant in spring: he proceeds to show, successively, that bracts, calyx, corolla, stamens, and pistil are each of them metamorphosed leaves, in every case giving many examples, both from monsters and from characters presented by those organs in their normal condition.
“The (to me) obscure and critical part of the Prolepsis was that relating to the change of the style of Carduus into two leaves. Mr. Brown has explained this. He says it was a puzzle to him, till he went to Upsala and consulted Fries and Wahlenberg, who informed him that such monstrous Cardui grew in the neighborhood, and procured him some. Considering how minute and masked the organs of Compositæ are, it shows no little skill in Linnæus, and a very clear view of the whole matter, to have traced the metamorphosis of all their floral organs into leaves, except their stamens, of which he says, ‘Sexti anni folia e staminibus me non in compositis vidisse fateor, sed illorum loco folia pistillacea, quæ in compositis aut plenis sunt frequentissima.’ I must say that nothing could well be clearer to my mind than the full and accurate appreciation which Linnæus shows of the whole series of phenomena, and their rationale. He over and over again asserts that these organs are leaves, every one of them,—I do not understand him to say that the prolepsis is an accidental change of leaves into bracts, of bracts into calyx, and so forth. Even were the language more obscure, much might be inferred from the wide range and accuracy of the observations he details so scientifically. It is inconceivable that a man should have traced the sequence of the phenomena under so many varied aspects, and shown such skill, knowledge, ingenuity, and accuracy in his methods of observing and describing, and yet missed the rationale of the whole. Eliminate the speculative parts and there is not a single error of observation or judgment; whilst his history of the developement of buds, leaves, and floral organs, and of various other obscure matters of equal interest and importance, are of a very high order of merit, are, in fact, for the time profound.
“There is nothing in all this that detracts from the merit of Goethe’s [638] re-discovery. With Goethe it was, I think, a deductive process,—with Linnæus an inductive. Analyse Linnæus’s observations and method, and I think it will prove a good example of inductive reasoning.
“P. [473]. Perhaps Professor Auguste St Hilaire of Montpellier should share with De Candolle the honor of contributing largely to establish the metamorphic doctrine;—their labors were cotemporaneous.
“P. [474]. Linnæus pointed out that the pappus was calyx: ‘Et pappum gigni ex quarti anni foliis, in jam nominatis Carduis.’—Prol. Plant. 338.” (J. D. H.)
CHAPTER VII.
Animal Morphology.
THE subject of Animal Morphology has recently been expanded into a form strikingly comprehensive and systematic by Mr. Owen; and supplied by him with a copious and carefully-chosen language; which in his hands facilitates vastly the comparison and appreciation of the previous labors of physiologists, and opens the way to new truths and philosophical generalizations. Though the steps which have been made had been prepared by previous anatomists, I will borrow my view of them mainly from him; with the less scruple, inasmuch as he has brought into full view the labors of his predecessors.
I have [stated] in the History that the skeletons of all vertebrate animals are conceived to be reducible to a single Type, and the skull reducible to a series of vertebræ. But inasmuch as this reduction includes not only a detailed correspondence of the bones of man with those of beasts, but also with those of birds, fishes, and reptiles, it may easily be conceived that the similarities and connexions are of a various and often remote kind. The views of such relations, held by previous Comparative Anatomists, have led to the designations of the bones of animals which have been employed in anatomical descriptions; and these designations having been framed and adopted by anatomists looking at the subject from different sides, and having different views of analogies and relations, have been very various and unstable; besides being often of cumbrous length and inconvenient form.