196 



THE AMERICAN MONTHLY 



[October, I 



Then the edges of the wings turned 

 up, and curved around towards each 

 other, until finally they met and 

 grew together, forming a tube and 

 a much more complete receptacle 

 for decomposing animal bodies. A 

 South American genus, the HeUmn- 

 pliora^ is just in this condition at the 

 present time. Then from some un- 

 known cause and in a way exceed- 

 ingly difficult to explain, our 8arra- 

 cenia changed entirely its manner of 

 capturing insects. The leaf bent 

 over the orifice of the tube, forming 

 the hood, and those remarkable 

 spines and tiled plates were devel- 

 oped on the inside of the hood and 

 tube, growing backwards, contrary 

 to the order of Nature. When all 

 this was accomplished and fully 

 completed, but not before, our plant 

 could commence its career as the 

 most successful trappist of either 

 the vegetable or the animal king- 

 dom. 



Now, according to the Darwinian 

 theory, all these transformations 

 were the result of innumerable slight 

 and accidental variations, each one 

 of which happened to be so benefi- 

 cial to the particular plant concerned, 

 that it got the start of all the others, 

 and every time run them all out of 

 existence. One cannot tell how 



many million times this extinction 

 and reproduction must have occur- 

 red, before our marvellously perfect 

 little fly-trap was finally produced. 

 Excuse me if I confess that not all 

 the canonical books of Darwin are 

 sufficient to make me put faith in 

 the miracles of accidental evolution. 

 I believe in the fact of the gradual 

 development of the organic king- 

 doms ; for all science teaches it. 

 But, I believe it was governed and 

 guided by forces more potent than 

 accident or chance. The Being, or 

 the first cause, if you will, that 

 originated the simple elements of 

 matter, and endowed them with the 

 power and the tendency to aggre- 

 gate into developing worlds, might 

 equally as well have endowed certain 

 of them with the power and the 

 tendency to aggregate into ever ad- 

 vancing organisms. There is no 

 chance, in the myriad forms of crys- 

 talline and chemical substances; then 

 why should there be in the scarcely 

 more varied colloid forms of living 

 matter? In a world that unfolds 

 from chaos in one steady line of pro- 

 gress, that shows only design at 

 every advancing stage, I must logic- 

 ally place somewhere at its com- 

 mencement the almighty fiat of a 

 Designer. 



The Simplest Forms of Life. — T. Family Hydromorina. 



Individuals in naked, berry-like families which move by rolling and jumping 

 They are little larger than those of Uvella virescens, but are distinguished from them 

 by the thick coat of the individuals which seems to be split in the middle. 



Genus. Hydromorum, Ehr. (formerly PolytoTua, Ehr.) 

 H. uvella. Common among algse in fresh water. 



VI. — Family, Dinobryina. 



Body spherical, metabolic, in a transparent, beaker-shaped capsule. By budding 

 and the attachment of the younger capsules upon the margins of the older, tree-like 

 colonies are formed, which frequently become detached from their original place and 

 swim about free. 



Genus. Dinohryon Ehr. Sheath transparent, animals whitish, with 

 red stigma. 



D. sertularia, Ehr. L. (of the capsule) 0.04. Common among 

 water plants. 



