Note 1121 — Chapter VII · (continued 2)

It was published in 1790. Winckler, Gesch. der Botanik, p. 389. But the historians of botany have overlooked a short passage in Göthe's works, which proves that he had glimpses of the discovery in or before 1786. See Italiänische Reise, in Göthe's Werke, vol. ii. part ii. p. 286, Stuttgart, 1837, where he writes from Padua, in September 1786, ‘Hier in dieser neu mir entgegen tretenden Mannigfaltigkeit wird jener Gedanke immer lebendiger: dass man sich alle Pflanzengestalten vielleicht aus Einer entwickeln könne.’ There are some interesting remarks on this brilliant generalization in Owen's Parthenogenesis, 1849, pp. 53 seq.