Page:History of botany (Sachs; Garnsey).djvu/201

 affinity, saw itself compelled at last to give up the constancy of specific forms in order to make this fact intelligible, and here we see how the idea of the adaptation of organisms is found to conflict with causality, unless we assume that the forms which arise through variation only maintain themselves, if they are sufficiently adapted to the surrounding conditions. The movement which began with Goethe and the nature-philosophy assumed a clearer form, found its purest expression, and revealed its most hidden treasures in the writings of Schimper and Alexander Braun; it would be superfluous to submit to a detailed review the numerous works of less important representatives of these views.

We turn from this realm of idealistic philosophy and imagination, from rejuvenescence, the wave-pulse of metamorphosis, the spiral tendency of growth, and the individuality of plants, to the last chapter of our history of systematic botany and morphology, where there is less dogmatism and less poetry, but a firmer ground on which will spring an unexpected wealth of new discoveries and of deeper insight into the nature of the vegetable world.