460 STUDIES IN SEEDS AND FRUITS 



accept the principle of evolution for the earth, we must necessarily 

 extend it to the cosmos ; and it is in this connection noteworthy that 

 the principle of cosmic adaptation must be implied in all schemes of 

 organic evolution of the cosmos. Thus Haeckel would hold that whilst 

 the lower forms of plants and animals have probably been evolved on 

 similar lines on the earth, Venus, Mars, etc., it is questionable whether 

 the higher plants and animals run through the same course on those 

 planets. It is thus implied that the principle "the lower the type 

 the wider its distribution " is true alike of the earth and of the whole 

 system of which it forms a part. From this it follows that the planets 

 would resemble each other most in the lower forms of life and would 

 differ most in the higher forms. Any scheme of evolution applied 

 only to a single planet must necessarily therefore be incomplete. 



