Abstract
Phyletic and Causal Morphology. I PROPOSE to deal with some aspects of the study of plant-morphology. In doing so I shall not accept any definition of morphology that would separate it artificially from other departments of botany. I regard the aim of plant-morphology as the study and scientific explanation of the form, structure, and development of plants. This abandons any sharp separation of morphology and physiology, and claims for morphology a wider scope than has been customary for the past fifty years. During this period the problem of morphology has been recognised as being “a purely historical one,” “perfectly distinct from any of the questions with which physiology has to do,” its aim being “to reconstruct the evolutionary tree.” The limitation of the purpose of morphological study, expressed in these phrases from the admirable addresses delivered to this section by Dr. Scott and Prof. Bower some twenty years ago, was due to the influence of the theory of descent. I fully recognise the interest of the phyletic ideal, but am unable to regard it as the exclusive, or perhaps as the most important, object of morphological investigation. To accept the limitation of morphology to genealogical problems is inconsistent with the progress of this branch of study before the acceptance of the theory of descent, and leaves out many of the most important problems that were raised and studied by the earlier morphologists.
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LANG, W. The British Association. Section K Botany . Nature 96, 242–248 (1915). https://doi.org/10.1038/096242a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/096242a0