THE EVOLUTION OF PLANTS 53 



expected to afford, were the theory of organic 

 evolution true, is afforded us without stint. 



Having reached these conclusions — for which I 

 would ask the reader not to take my word, but 

 rather to study the classical and compendious pages 

 of Darwin — we naturally turn our eyes to the past, 

 and ask whether there is any positive evidence as 

 to the history of vegetable life ; and whether such 

 evidence lends support to the theory of creation (it 

 a legendary statement of the inconceivable may be 

 called a theory) or to the doctrine of evolution. 

 Dig as deep as we may, do we find evidence of the 

 past existence of more complex forms in as great 

 abundance as to-day, or is the geological record a 

 record of ordered change ? 



The great principle which biology has established 

 is indeed found to be abundantly supported by the 

 record of the rocks, in regard to botanical as well 

 as zoological facts. And it has given meaning and 

 profound interest to a new study, now being prose- 

 cuted by many ardent students, which is known as 

 paleobotany. The science of palaeontology is naturally 

 divisible into the study of animal and the study of 

 vegetable fossils. The latter we now dignify — the 

 honour has been earned — by the special title of 

 paleobotany. The amateur reader may not inexactly 

 gauge the suddenness with which — in virtue of the 

 universal acceptance of the doctrine of organic 

 evolution — this study has leapt into prominence, by 

 noting the closely printed thirty pages devoted to it 

 in the tenth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, 

 and then rummasdngr through the old volumes in 

 the hope — all but vain — that he may somewhere, 



