191 
that the remoteness of those parts of the world and their isolation from 
the nearest land precluded the idea of species having migrated there ; 
but since then, as he has become more or less of an evolutionist, I 
suppose he imagines a submerged continent along which the migration 
may have taken place. The question is, as I have said, a very puzzling 
one; for instance, how the little butterwort, which is a cold-climate plant, got 
across the tropics. Those who advocate a slowand gradual migration suppose 
that these plants went over the tops of the Andes ; but the difficulty still 
remains—how did they get to the islands in the Antarctic Sea? The subject 
is a most interesting one, and those who are not botanists would find, in 
the great libraries to which they may belong or to which they have access, 
the Flora Antarctica well worthy of attention, as showing surprising con- 
stancy of. genera, and as containing plates, coloured by Mr. Fitch, which 
are of astonishing beauty. I do not assert that all genera are constant; 
some, of course, are variable ; but, nevertheless, we have to account for the 
fact that others are so amazingly persistent ; and it should be remembered 
that, when we say a genus or species is constant, this involves a vast nuni- 
ber of uniformities—thousands, in fact—down to the most minute points. 
(Hear, hear.) There is a plant called Bidens tripartita, found in the 
watercourses in the neighbourhood of London. If you take a specimen 
and strip off some of the florets that make up the composite flower, the 
smell of the receptacle at the top of the floer stalk will remind you 
at once of that of the dahlia, and here we have a very subtle bond of 
union indicated. Who would expect that this little English composite would 
show any affinity with a flower so different in appearance, and coming from 
America? Mr. Hassell made a most interesting remark about a fern. He 
gave an instance in which a child had recognised at once the likeness 
between the fossil and the existing ferns, and I can testify to the accuracy 
of the child’s statement. The portion of the coal measures with which [ 
used to have acquaintance was in South Wales, and I have only spoken of 
what I have myself seen. I never made a collection of the fossil ferns, 
but they were very familiar to me as a boy, and I remember that there was 
a district in which the shale was very brittle, and we used in walking 
about to break a great many pieces, and expose the beautiful impressions, 
which, however, were too fragile to bear handling, and so were lost. With 
regard to the theory of descent, I would only say that what I contend 
against is the doctrine advocated by Haeckel, that we must assume that all 
animals and plants have been lineally derived from their lowest forms. 
Haeckel and others have attempted to draw up a genealogical scheme for the 
vegetable as well as for the animal kingdom, beginning in the former with 
the lowest algae, or oscillatoriacese, now found in the hot springs. Of course, 
when we see what tremendous gaps there are in this genealogical system, 
we are satisfied at once as to the impossibility of making it complete, and 
all wiser botanists have given up the attempt. Ina modified form, perhaps, 
many have held evolution to be just possible. We might, perhaps, imagine 
