Apes. 205 



cabbage and spinach ; that kelp-weed and 

 tangle burgeoned into oaks and willows ; 

 and that slack, rope-weed, and green-raw, 

 shot up into mangel-wurzel, rye-grass and 

 clover." i 



And all this in Mr. Darwin's opinion 

 " does not seem incredible." There must have 

 been we have his word for it "a series of 

 forms graduating insensibly from some ape- 

 like creature to man as he now exists." 2 



How to derive the " ape-like creature " 

 himself? By a similar process: "a series 

 of forms graduating insensibly " from a tad- 

 pole to a monkey. The Ape is the imme- 

 diate, but the Ascidian is the remote pro- 

 genitor of the genus Homo. And these 

 Ascidians, which " resemble tadpoles in shape, 

 and swim by means of a vibratile tail, which 

 they shake off when they quit the larva 

 state and assume the sessile condition," " have 

 been recently placed, by some naturalists, 

 among the Vermes or worms." 



As to the ape-like creature, 



" Man is descended from a hairy quadruped, 

 furnished with a tail and pointed ears, prob- 

 ably arboreal in its habits, and an inhabitant 



1 " Footprints of the Creator," p. 226. 

 " Descent of Man : " vol. i. p. 235. 



