ON FACT VS. THEORY 
a shift in new environment; after which we must 
rebuild our bridges and revise all our maps.” 
Since the subject of classification is an impor- 
tant one; and since Mr. Burbank upsets some 
man-made law or theory on an average of about 
once in every sixty days, it may be well, at this 
point, to take a bird’s-eye glimpse over the maps 
and charts which have been worked out. 
With a subject in which the bulk of truth is 
masked in the obscurity of past ages, and with 
many men of many minds attacking it from many 
viewpoints, it is only to be expected that there 
should be differences of opinion. 
But, for the sake of making the explanation 
clear, we may, for the moment, overlook minor 
divergences and view, only, the main backbone 
plan which meets with the broadest acceptance. 
To begin at the beginning, we see, first, 
spread before us, three kingdoms, whose boundary 
lines are well surveyed, and whose extent is 
all-inclusive. These, as our Duffy’s second reader 
told us, are the mineral, the animal, and the 
vegetable kingdoms. 
Our interest lies now in the vegetable kingdom, 
which divides itself into six (perhaps seven) 
branches, or subkingdoms, called phyla. 
The lowest of these subkingdoms includes 
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