190 
! 
great similarity shown by the fossil remains found in England, and the 
plants growing in Egypt at the present day. The impressions of the leaves, 
and the leaves themselves, of the palms and magnolias that are dug up close 
to Bournemouth are just the same in appearance as those in Egypt now, and 
serve as evidence of a tropical climate at one time in our own land. 
Mr. J. Hassetit.—I thank Mr. James for his interesting and instructive 
paper. For my own part, I do not claim to know much about fossil botany, 
but I have taught the young a little about the botany of the present day ; 
and I remember on one occasion drawing attention to a fossil form on the 
table, und remarking that the nervation of the dicotyledons was different 
from that of the monocotyledons, and that of the acotyledons different 
from either of the others, and a child present said, “ That cannot be a very 
old thing, sir, for it is exactly like this leaf,” at the same time showing a 
leaf she had in her hand, the leaf of a recent fern. The more we know of 
the structure of plants the better are we able to see that no possible 
means within themselves could have produced the differences that are 
observable, and, consequently, the more contidently can we take up a posi- 
tion against the fascinating doctrine of evolution. I think it very 
desirable that the marked distinctions of species, which Mr. James has 
shown to be presented even from the very earliest ages, should be brought 
prominently before the young, by their teachers. Those who believe in 
evolution take advantage of every occasion which presents itself to in- 
oculate theYising generation with their views. Why, then, should not the 
believers in special creation do the same ? 
Mr. W. P. James, F.L.S.—I was much pleased to hear Mr. Carruthers 
say he does not believe in synthetic types of plants, and, if be were 
still present, I would explain to him that the last paragraph of my 
paper, headed, “ Do Synthetic Types prove Evolution?” is written from an 
entirely neutral point of view. I do not say that I believe in synthetic 
types inyself; I merely put it hypothetically, and I am very glad to find 
that Mr. Carruthers belicves the cycads are not a synthetic type. I have 
never seen them except in greenhouses, and have only taken what I have 
said of them from books; but I think I may say that, if there were a 
synthetic type, one would imagine them to constitute such a type, 
intermediate between ferns, palms, and conifers. I think that many 
excellent geologists have been a little too rash in speaking of types 
as synthetic, where the evidence does not seem sufticient to justify the term. 
In reply to Mr. Dent, who asked me how the plants I have spoken of 
got into the South Pacific Sea, I have nothing to add to what I have 
wready stated. That is a subject that does not belong to the ques- 
tion dealt with to-night; but it is, nevertheless, one of great interest. 
The reason I mentioned the Auckland Islands is that they are as far 
from Great Britain as they well could be. It is one of the great puzzles in 
botany to account for the antarctic species. Sir Joseph Hooker said, 
when he first explored those islands, and before he joined the evolutionists, 
