104 THE MORPHOLOGY OF PLANTS. 



flowers, belongs to exactly the same circle of forms and 

 development as our plain-looking garden Asparagus ; that 

 the wild Mallow, creeping over and adorning all the banks 

 of our country lanes, is far more nearly allied to the 

 old giant-stemmed Baobab, which has lived to six thou- 

 sand years on the west coast of Africa, than to the wild 

 Poppy growing beside it ; and yet all this is undoubtedly 

 true. Once more, then, to return to the principle above 

 laid down, in organic life it is not the appearance of the 

 existing, but the law of becoming, which decides between 

 like and unlike, similar and dissimilar ; and it is the idea of 

 the course of development, which is the only fruitful 

 thought in the scientific contemplation of life, and deter- 

 mines the value of the study ; therefore stands Physiological 

 higher than Systematic Botany, Comparative Anatomy 

 higher than Descriptive Zoology, as History is nobler than 

 Statistics. 



