The educated world, familiar with Faust, Werther, and Wilhelm Meister, is not so generally aware of the scientific achievements of the man who had a genus of plants (Goethea) and a mineral (goethite) named for him; who coined and first used the word morphology; who contributed to the understanding of the physiology of color; who rediscovered and described the intermaxillary bone in man, propounded the vertebral theory of the skull, formulated a concept in botanical morphology that persists to this day; who discovered the volcanic origin of a mountain; who established the first system of weather stations; who made the first systematic classification of minerals and was among the first to use the comparative method in biology; and who came unwittingly close to achieving the greatest concept in biology—some say the greatest concept in the thinking of man—the theory of organic evolution and the descent of man.

Most of the material translated in this volume is taken from notes and essays which Goethe published from 1817 to 1824 in journal form. Occupying a central position is the most famous and lasting of his scientific writings, the essay on the metamorphosis of plants—an essay which is today considered “one of the minor classics of botany.”

Goethe himself, toward the end of his life wrote, “For more than a half century I have been known as a poet, in my own country and undoubtedly also abroad; or at any rate I have been permitted to pass for one. But the fact that I have busily occupied myself with Nature in all her physical and organic phenomena, constantly and passionately pursuing seriously formulated studies—this is not so generally known; still less has it been accorded any attention.”

Contents

Translator’s Preface
Introduction by Charles J. Engard

ON MORPHOLOGY
Formation and Transformation
Metamorphosis of Plants

I. Concerning the Seed Leaves
II. Development of Stem Leaves from Node to Node
III. Transition to Inflorescence
IV. Formation of the Calyx
V. Formation of the Corolla
VI. Formation of Staminal Organs
VII. Nectaries
VIII. Additional Notes on the Staminal Organs
IX. Formation of the Style
X. The Fruits
XI. The Proximate Hulls of the Seed
XII. Recapitulation and Transition
XIII. Buds and their Development
XIV. Formation of Compound Flowers and Fruits
XV. The Perfoliate Rose
XVI. The Perfoliate Pink
XVII. Linne’s Theory of Anticipation
XVIII. Recapitulation

Metamorphosis of Plants—Second Essay
An Attempt to Evolve a General Comparative Theory
Preliminary Notes for a Physiology of Plants
Later Studies and Collections
Pollination, Volatilization, and Exudation
Increasing difficulty of Botanical Instruction
Remarkable Healing of a Badly Injured Tree
Problems
An Unjust Demand
Book Reviews
The Spiral Endency
On the Spiral Tendency in Plants

ON HIS PLANT STUDIES
The Author Relates the History of His Botanical Studies
Genesis of the Essay on the Metamorphosis of Plants
History of the Manuscript
History of the Brochure in Print
My Discovery of a Worthy Forerunner
Three Favorable Reviews
Other Friendly Overtures
Notes for an Essay on Plant Culture in the Grand Duchy of Weimar
An Analogous Procedure
The Influence of My Publication

ON GENERAL THEORY
Propitious Encounter
Indecision and Surrender
The Objective and the Subjective Reconciled by means of the Experiment
Experience and Science
Influence of the New Philosophy
Intuitive Judgment
The Creative Urge
Considerable Assistance from One Ingeniously Chosen Word
Analysis and Synthesis
Excursus
Friendly Gesture
Plea for Unity and Cooperation
Nature (A Fragment)
Commentary on “Nature”

Bibliographical Notes
Selected Bibliograph