Idealism and Asexualism j 4 47447 447
According to Goethe, leaf transmutation during metamorphosis follows a pattern
of expansion and contraction of the modified leaf. Considering Goethe’s aversion to the
mechanics of Newton and Boyle, his theory of leaf contraction and expansion is surpris-
ingly mechanical. Goethe invokes the role of spring- like “spiral vessels” to explain the con-
traction and expansion of all leaf- like organs.^54
While leaf transmutation may be driven by the action of spring- like spiral vessels, the
final step in the process, self- pollination, is a spiritual rather than a mechanical process.
From the highly contracted state of the anther, the tiny pollen grain emerges. No lon-
ger constrained by its spiral vessels, the pollen grain expands freely by the force of its
sap and “seeks out the female parts.” Goethe was a proponent of Blumenbach’s concept
of Bildungstrieb— the idea that the development of all creatures, including plants, was
guided by an inborn force or “drive.” It was therefore crucial to his theory of metamor-
phosis that pollen grains play an active role in attaching themselves to the pistil. This
accounts for his peremptory dismissal of insects and wind as pollen vectors. Presumably,
by bending toward the pistil, the stamen brings the pollen close enough to the stigma for
the pollen grain to move toward it by its own power. Once attached to the female stigmas,
the pollen grain “suffuses them with its influence,” thereby bringing about fructifica-
tion. According to Goethe, the union of the two sexes can be thought of as “anastomosis
[rejoining] on a spiritual level,” during which the plant briefly achieves sexual perfection.
Ascribing this spiritual process to the vagaries of wind or insects would, in Goethe’s view,
make a mockery of Nature’s divine plan.
The idea of “anastomosis” is key to understanding Goethe’s conception of plant sex at this
relatively early stage in his botanical career. Anastomosis is defined as the rejoining of two
streams or branches that have previously been united. In the vegetative plant, Goethe notes
that the “veins” (vascular strands) of stems and leaves branch and fuse at various points,
creating a vascular network. He explains that something analogous happens during sexual
reproduction in the flower: the two sexes are initially united in the vegetative plant, separate
during the metamorphosis of the stamen and pistil, and then reunite during pollination in
a kind of “spiritual” anastomosis:We see a fully formed pollen emerge from [the anthers]. ... Now released, it seeks
out the female parts that the same effect of nature brings to meet it; it attaches itself
to these parts, and suffuses them with its influence. Thus we are inclined to say that
the union of the two genders is anastomosis on a spiritual level; we do so in the belief
that, at least for a moment, this brings the concepts of growth and reproduction closer
together.According to Goethe, spiritual anastomosis involves purification of the sap: “The fine
matter developed in the anthers looks like a powder, but these tiny grains of pollen are just
vessels containing a highly refined juice.”
Nine years later, Goethe published a poem of the same title (“The Metamorphosis of
Plants”), which was intended as a pedagogical device to introduce his theory to a general
audience, especially to women. In it Goethe describes the course of plant metamorpho-
sis to his lover (Christiane Vulpius), culminating in the formation of fruit and seed. First