8S EVOLUTION 



and Conifers before there were any ordinary 

 Flowering Plants. 



There are other sets of suggestive facts to 

 which reference might be made if space per- 

 mitted : there is the absence of sudden breaks 

 or cataclysms; there is gradual waxing and 

 waning of races ; there is the remarkabte 

 phenomenon of what may be called the 

 adolescence and senescence of genera, if not 

 even species; there is the occurrence of old- 

 fashioned generalized types which link to- 

 gether a number of now divergent stocks; but 

 perhaps we have said enough to show that 

 the facts brought to light by the exploration! 

 of palaeontologists are suggestive of the 

 evolutionist interpretation, and there is no 

 other reading of the rock-record that does 

 not leave the facts enigmatical. In emphasiz- 

 ing the importance of this line of argument, 

 Huxley said : " The primary and direct evi- 

 dence in favour of Evolution can be furnished 

 only by palaeontology . The geological record, 

 so soon as it approaches completeness, must, 

 when properly questioned, yield either an 

 affirmative or a negative answer : if Evolution 

 has taken place there will its mark be left; 

 if it has not taken place there will lie its 

 refutation." But it is more consistent with 

 the science of to-day to put the case more 



