Flora Unveiled

Idealism and Asexualism j 431

431 431

garden was a major turning point in Goethe’s thinking, as he related in an essay written

sixteen years later:

Now the doubts that had been raised from time to time about the sexual system came

to my mind, and the ideas that I myself had had on the subject came to life again. The

new viewpoint supported certain views of Nature that now seemed clearer and more

significant to me; and accustomed as I  had been to preserve complete flexibility in

my application of metamorphosis, I  likewise found this viewpoint not uncomfort-

able, although at the same time I could not immediately relinquish the other [i.e., the

sexual theory].^4

The last sentence of this paragraph has generated a debate as to whether Goethe did in

fact change his mind and become an asexualist.^5 In 1804, at least, he still felt constrained by

the opinions of most academic botanists for whom the sexual theory had become axiomatic.

In addition, Goethe’s deep disappointment over the muted reception of his Metamorphosis

of Plants inclined him to be cautious about associating himself with Schelver’s heterodox

theory, lest he do irreparable harm to his scientific reputation:

No one familiar with the situation of our botanical science at that time will blame me

for imploring Schelver not to let his thoughts get abroad. It was to be foreseen that his

theory would get a most unfriendly reception and that the theory of metamorphosis,

which as it was had found no acceptance, would be banished from the boundaries of

science for a long time to come. Our own academic standing also made such secrecy

advisable.^6

By 1820, however, when Goethe was writing these words, asexualism was no longer being

anathematized. One of Schelver’s former students, the physician August Henschell, had

just published a 600- page treatise, On the Sexuality of Plants, challenging the validity of

Koelreuter’s hybridization experiments, and his arguments were gaining traction. Goethe

was jubilant on Schelver’s behalf:

Now his brilliant theory takes on substance through Henschell’s momentous study; it

is earnestly demanding its place in science, although one cannot yet foretell how that

place will be found. However, interest in the theory is already astir. Reviewers, instead

of preaching and scolding against it as before, confess that they have been converted,

and now we can only wait to see how things will develop further.^7

At this late date, Goethe’s enthusiasm for the philosophical arguments of Schelver and

Henschell is difficult to fathom in the face of the abundance of experimental evidence in

support of the sexual theory marshaled by Camerarius and Koelreuter.^8 Goethe makes

scant mention of Koelreuter’s experiments in his own writings, although Henschell dis-

cusses them explicitly. Ten years earlier, Goethe, in his Zur Farbenlehre (Theory of Colors),

had openly challenged the light experiments of no less a luminary than Sir Isaac Newton, so

his failure to take on the lesser- known Koelreuter can hardly be ascribed to timidity. More

likely it reflected Goethe’s genuine ambivalence toward the sexual theory.