extends from the cotyledons to the calyx, the green part of the plant,
that is, where the life principle is most active; secondly, the one
comprising the flower itself with the organs of fertilization, where
the vitality of the plant gives way to other principles; and lastly,
the fruit and seed, which are destined to be discharged from the mother
organism. Each of these three contains two kinds of organs: first,
organs with the tendency to grow into width-leaf, flower and fruit;
second, organs which are outwardly smaller and simpler, but have the
function of preparing the decisive leaps in the plant's development:
these are the calyx, the stamens, etc., and the seed.

In this succession, Goethe recognized a certain rhythm of expansion and
contraction, and he found that the plant passes through it three times
during any one cycle of its life. In the foliage the plant expands, in
the calyx it contracts; it expands again in the flower and contracts in
the pistil and stamens; finally, it expands in the fruit and contracts
in the seed.

The deeper meaning of this threefold rhythm will become clear when we
consider it against the background of what we observed in the
metamorphosis of the leaf. Take the mallow leaf; its metamorphosis
shows a step-wise progression from coarser to finer forms, whereby the
characteristic plan of the leaf comes more and more into view, so that
in the topmost leaf it reaches a certain stage of perfection. Now we
observe that in the calyx this stage is not improved on, but that the
plant recurs to a much simpler formation.

Whilst in the case of the mallow the withdrawal from the stage of the
leaf into that of the calyx occurs with a sudden leap, we observe that
the delphinium performs this process by degrees. Whilst the mallow