PLANT-LIFEGENERATION. 263 



living with the much later Angiosperms in 

 the fierce struggle for existence which has 

 wiped out so many of those oldest Gymno- 

 sperms. Perhaps the chief reason why the 

 Gingko tree has been preserved is that it bore 

 an edible fruit which is still sold in the mar- 

 kets of China. This quality of it was doubt- 

 less appieciated by the primitive man who 

 may uave interfered in favor of it as a food- 

 producing Plant, against the young and more 

 \'igoro is Angiosperms which had already be- 

 gun to flower seemingly with the early human 

 flowering. 



Many of the experts in fossil Botany are 

 now saying that there is no certain geologic 

 record of non-vascular Plants, which appear 

 to have no power of perpetuating their forms 

 in the rocks. The history of Plant-life on 

 the globe would then begin with the Cormo- 

 phytes in which the vascular system is first 

 unfolded. Here lies, we may note again, that 

 widest chasm in the Plant-world, as botanists 

 declare, which may yet be bridged over by the 

 discovery of intermediate forms. 



But already the Animal has appeared in its 

 own norm as distinct from the Plant, and has 

 evolved on a somewhat parallel line to our 

 time, with its own characteristics. The Com- 

 posite flower we have placed in the highest 

 rank, as it is no longer merely .an isolated in- 



