226 ON APHYLLOSTACHYS. 
minations of about twenty-six families, have shown vascular bundles in 
the pith, but never complete woody circles. In PauUnia (Sapindacw) 
only is this peculiarity noticed, and here not in the pith, but on the 
outside of the woody cylinder ; and yet notwithstanding the high 
systematic position of this genus, these woody circles are more im- 
perfect than in our fossil plants ; for in all of them, surrounded as 
they are by the common bark, we miss the pith, which is highly de- 
veloped in all the numerous specimens (often 30-40), existing in the 
medullarv axis of Medullosa stellata. 
■ 
3. All these conditions, even if we were inclined to grant that new 
discoveries may fill up certain breaks, prove an independent appearance 
of the different organisms, and are opposed to a secular transmutation 
of definite forms, which would necessitate our assuming the existence 
of previous lower, but hitherto altogether unknown ones. 
A still more positive proof of the independence of the creative type 
(unfavourable to transmutation or evolution) is supplied by those 
families and Orders of the Palaeozoic period, which have representa- 
tives in the existing flora. How very simple do our Calamaria 
appear, reduced as they are to Equisetea, in comparison to the diver- 
sified structure of Catamite*, and our Selaginea, in comparison with 
the Palaeozoic Lepidodmdrea, even if we take no note of the arbo- 
reous habit of the two groups. It should be remarked also that 
these highly developed Calamar'm co-existed with Perns, Monocoty- 
ledons, and Gymnosperms, and did not, as is often asserted, herald the 
appearance of these by combining characters which became afterwards 
separated or existed isolated in different genera. 
Quite isolated are the Sigillarire (of which the SUgmaria are the 
roots), and even without any other evidence they are quite sufficient to 
support the dictum that certain forms were created only once in certain 
geological periods, without the creative power being solicitous, as 
Darwin everywhere assumes, to ensure their further development 
Where do we find a plant of similar form or organization? It beg mS 
its existence, according to our observation, as a round knob, a tew 
inches in size, with root-fibres exactly resembling fleshy leaves, arrange 
in regular spiral lines, and dividing dieliotomously towards the pom i 
the knobs or tubers gradually develop* in cylindrical, afterwan s 
inked brandies, evidently intended to lead a subterranean existence 
in a swampy or boggy ground, at least for some time, like the rlnzoine o 
