The Convolvulus and the Lily

A Case-Study in the History of Reception

Abstract

The intricate relationship between morphology and history plays a crucial role in Darwin’s evolutionary theory since his first major work, The Origins of the Species (1859). The paper explores the distant roots of Darwin’s reflections on rudimentary characters: a theme in which morphology and history intersect. Darwin’s debate, both implicit and explicit, with his scientific interlocutors, starting from Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, led him to explain rudimentary characters on the basis of a linguistic model, which turned morphology into history: a path-breaking solution.