Linnaeus, the Cortex-Medulla Theory, and the Key to His Understanding of Plant Form and Natural Relationships
Year: 1990
Type: article
Abstract: Linnaeus's ideas on the composition of the various parts of the plant and the generation of plant form by the interactions of these tissues both with each other and with the sap of the plant are outlined.Linnaeus used the analogy he drew between the vegetative plant and the larva of an insect to justify his emphasis on parts of the fructification in the classification of genera; as with insects, he used the adult, rather than the larva, in classification.His thoughts on the relationship between the various appendicular parts of the plant in the context of his theories of prolepsis and metamorphosis are summarized.Linnaeus's ideas of plant form support his theories on the generation of plant diversity b-hybridization md an closely connected with his description of plenitude-continuit\ m a n\ i\ ma loscopic world of systematically arranged form that also incorporated findings from the microscopic world.Here, as elsewhere, the medulla can be shown to be the seat of life, but only its interaction with cortex allowed stable form to become manifest.Goethe's and A. P. de Candolle's notions of the "metamorphosis" of plants are briefly situated with regard to Ln ma u s ideas, asisth< worl /some earlier botanists.In the discussion the interrelationship is explored between Linnaeus's di Ik i ml approaches to looking at plants and their significance for an under-landing both of his taxonomic work and of his more general thinking about the diversity of life.The ideas of Linnaeus, and especially those of Goethe, on the metamorphosis of plant form are situated at one end of a spectrum of responses to the problem of the comprehension of diversity; Linnaeus's own taxonomic system represents the opposite end.The archaic cast to Linnaeus's cortexmedulla theory is confirmed, although its coherence and explanatory powers are abundantly evident.Most commentaries on Linnaeus's biological work have focused on his idea that the taxonomically important characters of an organism reflect, or are, that organism's essence, and especially on his arrangement of organisms in a classification using these characters.Any ideas that Linnaeus may have had as to how the form of an organism becomes manifest, and how the diversity of form in the living work is generated and organized, are less frequently discussed.It is usually suggested (see, for example, Stearn, 1 957, and Gustafsson, 1 985) that Linnaeus was perhaps more interested in simply describing the world than in understanding laws or principles underlying the diversity of form present in l mold Arboretum 7
Source: Journal of the Arnold Arboretum
DOI: 10.5962/p.184530
Authors: Peter F. Stevens, S P Cullen
Institution: Missouri Botanical Garden
Language: English
Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2483686174