THEORIES OF PLANT-LIFE. 65 



form. Then, coming up still farther, we begin to find these 

 beautiful ferns and other higher cryptogamous plants in 

 abundance, at the time of the coal-period, when they covered 

 the earth, and gave us, as the result of their deposition, those 

 beds of coal upon which our present civilization depends. 

 They were just as much fitted for us, just as much, in my 

 judgment, prepared for us, as were the fruits that we now 

 gather and garner for our use. Passing from the lower 

 forms of plant-life, the pine tribe, that is, the cone-bearing 

 trees, begin to appear, and, along with them, what we call 

 the monocotyledonous plants ; that is, those allied to our 

 grasses. Then, coming up still farther, we find plants that 

 represent those we have before us here. As we come to the 

 time when man was introduced on the globe, we begin to find 

 fruits and flowers, or plants from which our fruits and flowers 

 have sprung. 



This is the line of descent in general. I say nothing 

 about theories now. The facts we know. By breaking open 

 the rocks of the earth, we know that first we have those in 

 which there is no evidence of plant-life ; we then have rocks 

 in which there are very low forms, rising higher and higher, 

 until we come up to the last strata in time, where we find 

 evidence of the introduction of man ; and then these higher 

 plants appear on the globe. 



Now, there are three theories which it is worth while for 

 me to state very briefly in regard to the origin of these things. 

 Let me state them without entering into any controversy, 

 and without attempting to-night to substantiate either of 

 them. There seem to me to be three prevailing theories in 

 the world, two of which are so mixed up, that people are 

 constantly confused in regard to them, just as they are ift 

 regard to what they observe, as we have seen here to-night. 

 One is called the Darwinian theory. He starts with the 

 germs ; but he has never yet told us where those germs came 

 from. He says those germs had two characteristics, which 

 all germs which we have observed now have, — the two 

 characteristics which enable us to have a Board of Agricul- 

 ture. The foundation of tliis Board of Agriculture was laid 

 far back in the nature of those germs that first appeared, no 

 matter what our theory may be in regard to how they were 

 developed. What are those two characteristics, — for they 



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