no PRIMITIVE FORMS OF LIFE 



is therefore proved by the structure of their flowers ; the con- 

 trary idea has arisen because the structure of their stalk 

 resembles, in certain respects, that of the vascular Cryptogams. 

 But the Monocotyledons are angiospermous plants which can 

 only have acquired this character by passing through the 

 Gymnosperm stage, and the stalk of the known Gymno- 

 sperms has developed far beyond the primitive stem- 

 structure of the vascular Cryptogams. Consequently the 

 explanation of this feature must be sought elsewhere. The 

 Monocotyledons appear to have lived originally in humid or 

 marshy soil, or even in the water, as is indicated by their 

 smooth, simple, thick, parallel-veined leaves. Many are still in 

 this condition. We have but to cite the Rush, Sedge, 

 Rice, Iris, Arum Lily, Marsh Reeds, Bamboo, Eel-grass, 

 Pond-weed, Duckweed, etc. Even Palms, contrary to the 

 popular notion, are not found in the desert but in the well- 

 watered oases of the desert, which is not the same thing at all. 

 The stems of the ancestors of monocotyledonous plants, being 

 ill-supported in the soft soil, as we shall see, assumed a 

 recumbent position in the ground and became transformed into 

 rhizomes, like those of the vascular Cryptogams, and it is 

 upon this rhizome that the aerial stems were formed again by 

 a process analogous to that which forms the stalk of Mosses 

 and Horse-tails — which they thus resemble quite naturally. 

 These marshy plants are most favourably situated for 

 fossilization. It is not surprising, therefore, that they 

 should have been more easily preserved than the 

 Dicotyledons, and that they should even be found in strata that 

 have not as yet furnished any Dicotyledons. Lignier has 

 actually described under the name of PropaUnophylla the basal 

 parts of Jurassic leaves that he believes to have belonged to the 

 group of Monocotyledons. 



It would be useless to attempt to systematize the forms, 

 essentially variable according to their circumstances, of 

 Fungi, Algae, Hepaticae, and even Mosses. Their organic unity 

 is scarcely higher than that of the plastids ; all the parts of the 

 body, complicated as it appears, have the same value ; none 

 of them can be considered as having any particular 

 individuality. It is very different when we come to analyse 

 the vascular plants. If we look at the trunk of a Tree-fern, 

 a Cycad, or a Palm, it would seem evident, at first view, that 



