20 thesident's ADDKESS. 



produce vibi'atile spermatozoa like those of animals which swim in liquid 

 and fertilise the motionless egg-cell of the plant. Two Japanese botanists 

 (and the origin of this discovery from Japan, from the University of Tokio, 

 in itself marks an era in the history of science), Hirase and Ikeno, 

 astonished the botanical world fifteen years ago by showing that motile 

 antherozoids or spermatozoa are produced by two gymnosperms, the ging-ko 

 tree (or Salisbiirya) and the cycads. The pollen-tube, which is the ferti- 

 lising agent in all other phanerogams, develops in these cone-bearing trees, 

 beautiful motile spermatozoa, which swim in a cup of liquid provided 

 for them in connection with the ovules. Thus a great distinction between 

 phanerogams and cryptogams was broken down, and the actual nature of 

 the pollen-tube as a potential parent of spermatozoids demonstrated. 



When we come to the results of the digging out and study of extinct 

 plants and animals, the most remarkable results of all in regard to the 

 affinities and pedigree of organisms have been obtained. Among plants 

 the transition between cryptogams and phanerogams has been practically 

 bridged over by the discovery that certain fern- like plants of the Coal 

 Measures — the Cycadofilices, supposed to be true ferns, are really seed- 

 bearing plants and not ferns at all, but phanerogams of a primitive type, 

 allied to the cycads and gymnosperms. They have been re-christened 

 Pteridosperms by Scott, who, together with F. Oliver and Seward, has been 

 the chief discoverer in this most interesting field. 



By their fossil remains whole series of new genera of extinct mammals 

 have been traced through the tertiary strata of North America and their 

 genetic connections established ; and from yet older strata of tlie same 

 prolific source we have almost complete knowledge of several genera of 

 huge extinct Dinosauria of great variety of form and habit. 



The discoveries by Seeley at the Cape, and by Amalitzky in North 

 Russia of identical genera of Triassic reptiles, which in many respects 

 resemble the Mammalia and constitute the group Theromorpha, is also 

 a prominent feature in the palaeontology of the past twenty -five years. 

 Nor must we forget the extraordinary Silurian fishes discovered and 

 described in Scotland by Professor Traquair. The most important 

 discovery of the kind of late years has been that of the Upper Eocene 

 and Miocene Mammals of the Egyptian Fayum, excavated by the 

 Egyptian Geological Survey and by Dr. Andrews of the Natural History 

 Museum, who has described and figured the remains. They include a 

 huge four-horned animal as big as a rhinoceros, but quite peculiar in its 

 characters — the Arisinoitherium — and the ancestors of the elephants, a 

 group which was abundant in Miocene and Pliocene times in Europe, 

 and Asia, and in still later times in America, and survives at the 

 present day in its representatives the African and Indian elephant. 

 One of the European extinct elephants — the Tetrabelodon — had, 

 we have long known, an immensely long lower jaw with large chisel- 

 shaped terminal teeth. It had been suggested by me that the modern 

 elephant's trunk must have been derived from the soft upper jaw and 



