92 ANJfrVEESAEY ADDRESS 



British Museum, in the 'Contemporary Eeview' forPebruary, 1877, 

 entitled " Evolution and the Vegetable Kingdom." He sums up as 

 follows : — 



" The whole evidence supplied by fossil plants is thus opposed 

 to the hypothesis of genetic evolution, and especially the sudden 

 and simultaneous appearance of the most highly organised plants 

 at particular stages of the past history of the globe, and the entire 

 absence among fossil plants of any forms intermediate between 

 existing classes or families." 



I will now take leave to repeat my own published opinions on 

 the subject. 



In the introduction to my -work on ' British Conch ology,' I 

 stated (page xxviii), under the head of Progressive Development : 

 " The researches of geologists have established by positive evidence, 

 that the organisation of many animal and vegetable types has not be- 

 come more specialised or been rendered more perfect since the period 

 to which we ascribe their creation, and that, notwithstanding the 

 enormous lapse of time which is indicated by the accumulation of 

 fossiliferous strata, the modification or change which these types 

 have undergone has been remarkably slight. There is abundant 

 evidence of variation, but none of what is usually understood as 

 ' progression.' (See Professor Huxley's Address delivered at the 

 Anniversary Meeting of the Geological Society, 21st February, 

 1862.) The theory of 'progressive development' appears to have 

 been very hastily advanced, and is by no means borne out by 

 geological facts." 



After expressing my agreement with the opinion entertained by 

 Forbes and Hanley, that "the true source of our molluscan fauna 

 •was first manifested by the assemblage of Testacea preserved in the 

 deposit called Coralline Crag," and disputing the viewsof D'Orbigny, 

 Agassiz, and others, that there is no specific identity between any 

 of the Tertiary and recent or existing Mollusca, I said (page Ixxxix) : 

 " At all events, he must be a bold species-maker who can pretend 

 to distinguish Crag specimens of the common European cowry, and 

 of many other species, from those which now live in the adjacent 

 seas ; and their varieties and monstrosities also, both in a fossil and 

 recent state, coincide in the most minute particulars, the only 

 difference being that the latter are glossy and comparatively trans- 

 parent, while the former are dull and opaque. Even the Lingida 

 of the "Wenlock Silurians could not be distinguished by Mr. David- 

 son (who has especially and so thoroughly studied the fossil Brachio- 

 poda) ffom a living species (Z. anatina), by any character which 

 he could recognise as constituting a valid specific difference. 



