18441858] HIGHNESS AND LOWNESS 77 



(I fancy) on Composite being highest. Ad. de Jussieu, 1 in Letter 36 

 Arch, du Museum, Tome 3, discusses the value of characters of 

 degraded flowers in the Malpighiaceae, but I doubt whether 

 this at all concerns you. Mirbel somewhere has discussed 

 some such question. 



Plants lie under an enormous disadvantage in respect to 

 such discussions in not passing through larval stages. I do 

 not know whether you can distinguish a plant low from non- 

 development from one low from degradation, which theoreti- 

 cally, at least, are very distinct. I must agree with Forbes 

 that a mollusc may be higher than one articulate animal and 

 lower than another ; if one was asked which was highest as a 

 whole, the Molluscan or Articulate Kingdom, I should look to 

 and compare the highest in each, and not compare their 

 archetypes (supposing them to be known, which they are 

 not). 



But there are, in my opinion, more difficult cases than 

 any we have alluded to, viz., that of fish but my ideas are 

 not clear enough, and I do not suppose you would care to 

 hear what I obscurely think on this subject. As far as my 

 elastic theory goes, all I care about is that very ancient 

 organisms (when different from existing) should tend to 

 resemble the larval or embryological stages of the existing. 



I am glad to hear what you say about parallelism : I 

 am an utter disbeliever of any parallelism more than mere 

 accident. It is very strange, but I think Forbes is often 

 rather fanciful ; his " Polarity " 2 makes me sick it is like 

 " magnetism ' turning a table. 



If I can think of any one likely to take your Illustrations} 

 I will send the advertisement. If you want to make up 

 some definite number so as to go to press, I will put my name 

 down with pleasure (and I hope and believe that you will 

 trust me in saying so), though I should not in the course of 

 nature subscribe to any horticultural work : act for me. 



1 " Monographic de la Famille cles Malpighiacees," by Adrien de 

 Jussieu, Arch, du Museum, Vol. III., p. i, 1843. 



2 See Letter 41, Note 2. 



3 Illustrations of Himalayan Plants from Drawings made by J . F 

 Cathcart. Folio, 1855. 



