The same may be said also of Linnaeus’ morphological views; here, too, a more superficial pursued its way along with a more profound conception. He formed his terminology of the parts of plants for practical use in describing them, and convenient as it is, it seems nevertheless shallow or superficial, because its foundations are not more deeply laid in the comparative study of forms. But we discover from very various passages in his writings that he felt the need of a more profound conception of plant-form, and what he was able to say on the subject he put together under the head of ‘metamorphosis plantarum.’ His doctrine of metamorphosis is entirely based on the views of Cesalpino, with which we have already become acquainted, though he did not adopt them in their original form, but endeavoured to develop them in true Cesalpinian fashion; for on the one hand he derived leaves and parts of flowers from the tissues of the stem, and on the other conceived of the parts of the flower as only altered leaves. This doctrine of metamorphosis appears in somewhat confused form in the last page of his ‘Philosophia Botanica.’ There he says that the whole of the herb is a continuation of the medullary substance of the root; the principle of the flowers and leaves is the same, because both spring from the tissue-layers surrounding the pith, as Cesalpino had taught. The statement which follows, that the principle of the bud and the leaves is identical, would be a departure from Cesalpino, and in any case inconsistent, without the explanation that the bud consists of rudimentary leaves; but this again puts the axial portion of the bud out of sight. The perianth, he says, comes from concrescent rudiments of leaves. How closely Linnaeus adhered to Cesalpino in his later years appears in his explanation of the catkin, which comes next and which is taken entirely from Cesalpino’s theory. That a more superficial and a more profound conception pursue their way together unadjusted in Linnaeus’ speculations on form is specially shown by the fact, that in the text of the ‘Philosophia Botanica,’ paragraph 84, he places the ‘stipulae’ under the idea of ‘fulcra’ and not under that of ‘folia,’ while on the contrary at the end of the same work, where he brings together the different paragraphs respecting metamorphosis, he speaks of the ‘stipulae’ as appendages of the leaves.