ORIGIN OF PLANTS 
belonging to the family Archegontatae early 
established an alternation of generation in 
which the spores give rise to a small plant which 
looks like a Liverwort and bears the reproduc- 
tive organs. The fertilized ovum of this plant 
grows into a leafy, sexless individual which 
produces spores non-sexually. We therefore 
have a generation endowed with sex organs 
making for development and progress, alter- 
nating with a sexless generation calculated to 
continue the tendencies of the race. 
It is undoubtedly the sex element which 
accounts for those “sports” or mutations in 
plantdom which occasionally overstep the limits 
of species to form new species. 
In the luxurious atmosphere of the early globe, 
vegetation waxed strong and vigorous and at- 
tained remarkable proportions. The primeval 
woods served to draw the superabundant carbon 
from the air and in millions of decayed bodies 
store it up as graphite, coal, petroleum and il- 
luminating gas. The present day graphite beds 
alone represent vast quantities of ancient vege- 
tation. It is a unique experience to be able to 
write or draw pictures of these prehistoric plants 
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