VOL. XII. NO.8.—~BOTANICAL GAZETTE,.—AUGUST, 1887. 
Vegetable parasites and evolution.’ 
W. G FARLOW. ° 
In the countless discussions concerning evolution which 
have followed the publication of Darwin’s Origin of Species, 
zodlogists have gone farther than botanists in their efforts to 
explain the possible origin of higher forms from the lower. 
Botanists, as a rule, have contented themselves with a con- 
sideration of the ancestral relations of the orders of higher 
plants, but, until very recently, they have scarcely made any 
serious attempt to present a general scheme showing, from 
an evolutionary point of view, the relations of all the groups 
of the vegetable kingdom. This may be due either to their 
timidity—perhaps modesty is a better sounding word—or to 
their ignorance. If the latter, they have certainly been wise 
in avoiding unnecessary display of their ignorance ; if the 
former, they can easily be pardoned, when one considers 
how large a part an aggressive audacity savoring of sensa- 
tionalism has played in the formation of some schemes of 
development \ 
much light on the progress of the lower forms from paleon- 
tology, we are compelled to trust largely to plants as we now 
! Vice-Presidential address before Section F, A. A. A. S., New York, August 10, 1887. 
