THE PATH OF EVOLUTION 



exclusively upon the developments of the details of 

 Animal life, neglecting the simpler structures of 

 Plant life. This procedure, though natural enough to 

 the professed Biologist, is scarcely so well adapted to 

 the needs of the general reader, who can seldom re- 

 fer to the animal structure itself. The greater com- 

 plexity of the animal organism, even though of a 

 low type, compared to that of the plant, renders it far 

 more difficult to follow the initial phenomena that 

 life manifests, which, even in plants, lie almost be- 

 yond human understanding. For this reason atten- 

 tion has been drawn, with a few exceptions, to the 

 study of plant life only. It alone can show the divid- 

 ing line between the inorganic world and organic 

 life its origin and its reproduction. All who choose 

 can readily watch and study it. 



The simple cell of a protococcus, or the protean 

 forms of an amoeba the one believed to belong to 

 plant life, the other to animal life, and each so 

 small as to be invisible to unaided vision yet contain 

 within themselves that mystery of existence : the 

 potency of life. The doctrine of Evolution teaches 

 us that from these beginnings may be evolved the 

 highest types of life. The infinite varieties of cel- 

 lular structure, the formation of tissue, the occurrence 

 of chlorophyll in the delicate green leaf, whose 

 wonder-working power maintains breath and food 



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