PRINCIPAL GROUPS OF PLANTS. 



129 



nothing was permanent, and he could not help but wonder how 

 both the inorganic and the organic world came to be as he found 

 them. The fact is, then, that for years the thinking element of the 

 human race has had a fairly clear conception of the idea of evolu- 

 tion ; all they lacked was the proof. Nothing is more decidedly 



FIG. 84A. Hypothetical tree of relationship and descent of the leading groups of plants. 



-After Ganong. 



wrong than the belief that Darwin first conceived the theory of 

 evolution. His renown only lies in the fact that he was one of 

 the first to suggest an explanation, and probably also because his 

 explanation came at a most opportune time and was worked up in 

 such a masterly way. 



