4 CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BOTANY 
eral belief among es that oe — reptiles and mammals 
of the Tertiary and earlie = became topheavy by over-develop- 
ment and have eons faded out now agree ere being only a few waifs 
left, such as the elephants, rhinocercs, hippopotamus, tigen, lions 
oes 
A conspicuous aan a a a, misfit is the Cacta- 
cex, a family of horrid arma and wonderful floral develop- 
ment, specially adapted to mint the Max th but so handicapped 
by weak productive organs and inability to adjust itself to humid 
conditions that it cannot become a menace. ‘The religionist will 
point this out as a foo provision of an all-wise Creator, but the 
ieee will reply that if He were all-wise He would not have let 
uch an emergency arise, but to inh it is simply a case of a family 
Sasslbe away by a craze for floral and spine development to the det- 
riment of self-propagation. 
