42 UNIVERSAL EVOLUTION 



mammalia. Instead of being created at the head of 

 animals, he had the same genetic origin as all other 

 mammals. It also became then plain that the line 

 between the different orders, families, genera, and 

 especially of species, was not distinct, but that the 

 demarcation became very obscure at the margins, and 

 the species of former epochs gradually merged into 

 others. 



By a general sweeping classification of all organisms. 

 Linnaeus, Cuvier, and other naturalists quickly found 

 that two organic kingdoms could be established, the 

 vegetable and the animal, but not by strictly impassa- 

 ble boundary lines. They merge into each other at all 

 points of attribute and quality. In some degree, the 

 characteristics of a vegetable are found in every animal, 

 and every animal possessed at some moment, and in 

 some species, the peculiarities of a vegetable. This is 

 not surprising when it is found that the vegetable is 

 but one step in the evolution of higher life, and that 

 animal life is not possible without the vegetable. The 

 cells of both are propagated by like methods, and are 

 similar, in being formed of identical protoplasm. The 

 two can be classified into groups, characterized by 

 certain qualities, which are emphasized by the group, 

 but not possessed exclusively by it. The most impor- 

 tant distinction between the animal and the vegetable 

 is their method of alimentation. The vegetable takes 

 directly from inorganic nature its sustentation. But 

 the animal draws its sustentation only secondarily from 

 the inorganic, through the vegetable, which has stored, 

 by its chlorophylian power, a reservoir of fixed carbon, 

 directly from the soil and air. Yet, there is the enigma 

 of the Drosera and the pinguicula, which live like 

 vegetables partly, and. like animals, feed also upon 



