285 



may " sport," as it is called, it finally returns to the original type instead of 

 progressing onwaids. 



My own idea, then, is, however far back we may try to go in the history 

 of the earth, when elevated above the dominion of prinireval seas, we shall 

 find a distributed vegetation of varied character, and that circumstances have 

 either restricted or multiplied this original vegetation, spreading it widely in 

 some cases over vast areas, like the little groundsel, the thistle, or the aspiring 

 pine; while in others, as in the case of some rare orchids or other plants only 

 once or twice found, or limited to particular spots, there has been no extension 

 of the species from the original place where it first vegetated. Greater 

 variety formerly existed on the earth's surface, both as to animals and plants, 

 than at present, and in the fact of numerous animils and plants having 

 become extinct, this is undeniable. Slowly but surely this will go on, because 

 nature in its wilduess and man in his advance to civilisation and increase of 

 dominion are incompatible. Nature makes neither new animals nor new 

 plants now, though discoveries may yet be made of what were previously 

 obscure or unknown ; but at length there will be fewer lands to conquer, the 

 ground unobserved becomes every year less, and in a few centuries hence, if 

 fresh islands and continents are not raised from the sea, there will be 

 scarcely any terra incognita at all from one pole to the other. The value, 

 then, of all past careful observation by scientific men becomes of increasing 

 interest, because it is certain that, with colonization in every part of the world, 

 the spread of culture, and the necessity of utilizing every spot of ground as 

 population increases, that numerous animals and plants will altogether dis- 

 aijpeai from the earth's suiface ; and though man's ingenuity may never 

 cease to adorn the garden by his pressing the powers of Nature to the utmost 

 point to which they may be carried, yet Nature herself intruded upon and 

 displaced from her wild haunts, will in the publicity to which she must 

 become exposed, originate nothing fresh there ; and in botany especially the 

 catalogue of new plants must eventually be closed, unless (as Fries says) we are 

 compelled to make the species of a plant depend upon the presence or 

 absence of a single hair. 



To the past, then, we must look for information on the earth's history. 

 That will always have a treasury whose recesses invite exploration, when the 

 present scene, at last everywhere invaded by chimneys, smoke, and noisome 

 smells, has become flat, unprofitable, and, to the naturalist, all but exhausted. 



Ere the paper was quite concluded, the inexorable train obliged the 

 Woolhopeans and Cotteswoldeans to migrate, like the plants mentioned, in 

 different directions, and though the Malvern and Worcester divisions pro- 

 longed the sederunt for some time longer, nothing further of any interest was 

 brought forward, and the proceedings were closed for the day, and for the 

 season as well, with most ot the clubs. 



