376 ORIGIN OF THE 
of the recent age of the vegetation of the Alps; although it is readily 
conceded that this theory cannot by any means be looked upon as com- 
pletely proved. 
Stronger arguments may, perhaps, be derived, in more than one 
respect, from the peculiar character of the flora of the Alps. It is ad- 
mitted on all hands, as proved by vegetable fossils, that the lower plants 
have been produced before those of a higher order; and that conse- 
quently the history of the earth, both in its vegetable and animal crea- 
tion, exhibits a progressive development, ascending from the simpler 
forms or organizations, to those of a more compound nature, In the 
oldest period (of coal) flowerless plants predominated ( plante vasculares 
eryptogame) ; in the brown-coal period this was the case with Coni- 
. fere and Cycadee, both of which belong to the apetalous dicotyledons. 
With these facts before us, we feel justified in expecting that, ina 
modified degree, traces of similar proportions will be discovered in the 
existing vegetable world, and that out of two given floras, that m 
which the highest forms predominate, must be the youngest. In order 
to test this proposition, I have compared the flora of the Alps with that 
of Germany, and the antediluvian flora, and have arrived at the 
. following, numerical results : * — 
: Antediluvian Vegetation. Existing Veget. 
Before the After the 
Chalk. Chalk, Germany. Alps. 
Flowerless plants ( plante vasculares 
DUDEN) . o o Cao '81 '02 "02 x 
Ternary plants (Monocotyledonee) . ^. . "06 13 “21 
Quinary plants (Dicotyledonea). 04 
EMEN V o s o S x 12 45 8. 9 
pune ee — 9 40 1:9 r 
TheAlps have, therefore, 78 per cent. corolliferous Dicotyledons ; Ger- 
many only 69 per cent. The former world, after the chalk formation, 
has 40 per cent. ; before the same, only 1 per cent. On the other hand, 
apetalous dicotyledons constitute, in the flora of the Alps, no more 
than 4 per cent.; but in that of Germany 8 per cent. (7 per cent. if 
sea-shore plants are deducted); while in the former world they were 
(including Cycadee) before the chalk, 12 per cent., after the same 45 
per cent. With respect to flowerless plants, the quotients are alike, 
* With regard to the flora of Germany and the Alps, I have availed myself of 
= Koch's ‘ Handbuch’; for the Antediluvian flora, of the enumeration given by Brom, 
in ‘ Naturgeschichte 77 L i ; ; 
