generated in vegetable and animal infusions by means of germs which float in the air, are vegetable; but that other busy little body generated in the same infusion, which Professor Huxley calls "Heteromita lens," may be animal; there is a border territory between the two kingdoms, a sort of neutral land, the inhabitants of which cannot be separated with any certainty, or brought to their proper allegiance in either kingdom. We cannot as yet say "Here the line between the animal and the plant must be drawn." Tournefort's system of vegetation contains twenty-two classes; that of Linnæus, twenty-four; the natural method by Jussieu, the basis of a complete scientific tabulation, comprises fifteen classes, one hundred natural orders, and about one thousand seven hundred and forty genera. The sequence of orders now generally adopted is that proposed by De Candole.1 The result of all the various schemes establishes two primary divisions of all plants : a. Phænogams, or Flowering Plants. 1. Dicotyledons-plants with two seed lobes; b. The Cryptogams subdivide into 3. Acrogens-vascular plants for the most part; "Beyond this, except in the case of Cryptogams, it is difficult to establish any subdivisions higher than that of Orders; and of the Phænogamous Orders themselves, it is astonishing how few are absolutely limited." 2 To assert that Moses has given, in his brief account of the formation of plants, a prophecy of scientific classification would be unwarrantable; but it is, to say the least, remarkable that his "Grass," "Herb," "Plant" (Gen. ii. 5), “Tree," should happen to be that number of which scientific men say -"It is difficult to establish any subdivisions higher than that of Orders." "In the popular mind, plants are still classed under the heads of trees, shrubs, and herbs; and this serial "Descriptive and Analytical Botany," p. 165: arranged by Sir Joseph Dalton 2 Ibid. p. 991. Hooker. The Sacred Account Comprehensive. 203 classing, according to the simple attribute of magnitude, swayed the earliest observers." The utter indefiniteness of ancient sacred description, wanting even the rudiments of scientific form, may fairly and safely be taken as a commendation for as to Phænogams, the first and chiefest of the Botanical kingdom, "a large proportion either are connected with one or more others by a series of interminable genera, or contain genera which present so many of the characters of other orders, that it is altogether uncertain in which of them they shall be placed." Nor is it to be forgotten, that the roots of the Hebrew words themselves yield a more correct and scientific meaning, if such be required; but it is more akin to the spirit of the Divine narrative to take the Scriptural simple and popular compendium-grass, herb, plant, tree-which men generally look upon as including all vegetation. Had Moses endeavoured to give us some idea of the results of evolution, so far as they are now accurately known, he could not better have described them than "by seizing the successive salient points in a continuous history of myriads of years-projecting them on the mind like a succession of dissolving views, which gather into distinctness or fade away into nothingness, like the dawning and the parting of the day."9 No hard and fast lines can be drawn. We have remarked already that of the two hundred and seventy-eight of the Phænogamous, or flowering orders, described by Dr. Hooker, "Descriptive and Analytical Botany," excluding those containing only one or two genera, it is astonishing how few are absolutely limited. With flowerless plants, or Cryptogams, the case is different; but even these can only be strictly limited, if it be limitation, by making them very comprehensive. The same fact extends through all natural history. There are whole classes of organisms to which it is impossible, even with the widest reservations, to apply the old idea of species, with its immutability of essential characteristics.* 1 'Principles of Biology," vol. i. p. 295: Herbert Spencer. * "Descriptive and Analytical Botany:" arranged by Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker. * Rev. T. G. Bonney, F. R. S., "University Sermon:" Cambridge, April 29, 1877. "The Doctrine of Descent:" Prof. Oscar Schmidt. Botanical and other systems are but superficial, they rest upon forms which are in an extreme grade of mutability, and it is not a little wonderful that Scripture should give a general formula which substantially contains the present scientific classification. It may be said of the creative narrative-Only those vegetable productions are meant which are useful to man; and that trees and plants of this character were of later appearance on the earth, and only just preceded man. The best reply to such an objection is utter denial. One must not be tempted into argument that the families of vegetables and animals were probably introduced according to the order in which naturalists have of late classed the flora and fauna. It is better to rely on the general and comprehensive character of Scripture; it were needless to seek scientific and technical accuracy; for, really, the objection confirms the ancient narrative. Grass, herb, tree, fruit tree, are simple comprehensive words, which of old, and even now, popularly sum up all vegetable life. Vegetation grew from the simpler to more complex forms. The earliest plants which are known in the fossil condition to geologists are fucoids, and they were probably true seaweeds, or algæ. In fossil shells of the Silurian age, traces of the presence of microscopic fungi, such as Achlya penetrans (Duncan), have been found. Some of the higher Cryptogams, closely allied in their construction to those now existing, have been got out in the fossil condition from the Devonian and Carboniferous strata, associated with Calamites and Lepidodendron. The earliest plants were marine. Then came land forms of simple and more complex construction, but still belonging to the lower orders. Conifers, or Gymnospermous Exogens, were with these and other plants in the Carboniferous age; there was structural variety in those remote days. Flowerless plants, with fronds, were succeeded by those possessing stems and leaves. The early plants could contribute little, if at all, to the support of high animal life; nevertheless, grass and herb are of ancient origin, their early existence may certainly be inferred from the presence of various insects in the Lias and Tertiaries. Dicotyledons, of Angiospermous kinds, abounded in the Cretaceous strata of The Succession of Vegetable Life. 205 America and Europe. Probably, preceding all these, a microscopic vegetation universally existed. It is a beauty, and not defect, that the simple formula of words given in the Bible contains and describes the lowest and highest products, the earliest and latest vegetable life. Who will say that the modern scientific classification Phænogams, or Flowering Plants, 1. Plants with one seed lobe. Cryptogams, or Flowerless Plants, {4. Purely cellular plants. is simpler, more comprehensive, intelligible, and beautiful, for ordinary people, than the ancient words, roughly translated, grass, herb, plant, tree? We now summarise, in briefest possible manner, the succession of vegetable life on the earth. The groups did not come into existence at once; in the main, the lower groups appeared first, and the higher last, substantially in accord with the Scriptural statement. The earliest known vegetation "consisted principally of the lowly organised Cryptogamous, or flowerless plants. The Mesozoic formations, up to the Chalk, are especially characterised by the naked-seeded flowering plants-the Conifers and the Cycads; while the higher groups of the Angiospermous Exogens and Monocotyledons characterise the Upper Cretaceous and Tertiary rocks." 1 The process was slow and gradual, and, for the most part, without sudden breaks, proceeding to a greater or less extent, by way of evolution; so that many existing species' are the modified descendants of fossil forms, even as those were derived from pre-existent forms. At the same time, there are facts which prove the existence of some law of a deep and far-reaching character, by which alone can be explained the constant introduction, throughout geological time, of new forms of life; for example, the wonderful Dicotyledonous flora of the Upper Cretaceous period burst into view without any prophetic announcement from the older Jurassic. This is yet more specially the case with animal life. So far as we 1 "The Ancient Life History of the Earth," p. 371: H. Alleyne Nicholson. 2 Ibid. 373. know, the Graptolites and Trilobites had no predecessors, and have no successors. Insects appear suddenly in the Devonian, and the Arachnides and Myriapods in the Carboniferous strata, under "well-differentiated and highly specialised types." Nor is this all: there are various groups, and some of them highly organised, which continue almost unchanged, and certainly unprogressive, throughout geological time. They indicate that under given conditions, at present unknown, a life-form may subsist for an almost indefinite period without any modification in its structure. One cannot but admire, in connection with this continuance of work "by some orderly and constantly acting law of modification and evolution," and in connection with "the constant introduction throughout geological time of new forms of life," which "have no known predecessors, and have no successors," the Scriptural use of the word "day." Day, in its minuteness, reduces the initiation of living things to exceeding brevity of time; and day, in its expansiveness, comprehends innumerable ages; so that whether we think of the constant introduction of new forms, or of the continuous operation by which old forms are modified, both are wrought in the Day of God. Pursue the inquiry :— i. Is it possible that plants were produced under a denser, cloudier, moister, and more disturbed atmosphere than the present? ii. Did plants precede animals? iii. Were plants of Divine origination? i. As to the origination of plants without sunlight, we admit that it is simply impossible for the cooled earth to have been without the sun as luminary, and without alternate day and night. Tidal marks are found in the lowest rocks (Azoic), and thus we know, comparatively early, of the moon. to be taken as a fact that the sun, like the earth, was formerly hotter than at present. "We can imagine that one effect of its heat was to throw off from its surface such enormous clouds 1 "The Ancient Life History of the Earth," p. 373: H. Alleyne Nicholson. 3 Ibid. p. 373. 2 Ibid. p. 372. |