The Metamorphosis of Plants

About this book

Goethes influential text newly illustrated with stunning color photographs. The Metamorphosis of Plants published in 1790 was Goethes first major attempt to describe what he called in a letter to a friend the truth about the how of the organism. Inspired by the diversity of flora he found on a journey to Italy Goethe sought a unity of form in diverse structures. He came to see in the leaf the germ of a plants metamorphosisthe true Proteus who can hide or reveal himself in all vegetal formsfrom the root and stem leaves to the calyx and corolla to pistil and stamens. With this short book123 numbered paragraphs in the manner of the great botanist LinnaeusGoethe aimed to tell the story of botanical forms in process to present in effect a motion picture of the metamorphosis of plants. This MIT Press edition of The Metamorphosis of Plants illustrates Goethes text (in an English translation by Douglas Miller) with a series of stunning and starkly beautiful color photographs as well as numerous line drawings. It is the most completely and colorfully illustrated edition of Goethes book ever published. It demonstrates vividly Goethes ideas of transformation and interdependence as well as the systematic use of imagination in scientific researchwhich influenced thinkers ranging from Darwin to Thoreau and has much to teach us today about our relationship with nature.