2 Charles E. Bcsscy 



10. Evolution has generally been consistent, and when a particu- 

 lar progression or retrogression has set in, it is persisted in 

 to the end of the phylum. 



11. Retrogression once set in usually persists, and is not followed 

 by a progression. 



12. Hysterophytic degeneration is persistent, and the hystero- 

 phytic phylum never becomes holophytic. 



13. In the first stages in the development of any organ, whether 

 upward or downward, the new structures are not as fixed as 

 they become later, and in these earlier conditions there may 

 be reversions to the ancestral structures, while later such re- 

 versions do not occur. 



14. All plant relationships are genetic. 



15. Plants are related up and dozvn the genetic lines, and the sys- 

 tem of plants to be quite natural must recognize these phyla. 



Accordingly, the Vegetable Kingdom is here regarded as con- 

 sisting of fourteen or fifteen well-marked great phyla, of the rank 

 of "Branches" or "Divisions" of earlier synopses. Their general 

 relationship to each other is crudely indicated in the chart (Plate 

 I). Each of these phyla might be similarly divided to show the 

 relationships of the smaller phyla' (classes, orders, etc.), but that 

 is deemed unnecessary in this case, since the multiplicity of lines 

 and names would be confusing, rather than helpful. In this chart 

 the areas assigned to the phyla are approximately proportional to 

 the number of species in each, and their points of origin, also, are 

 indicated approximately. The dotted line which comes off from 

 the Protophyceae in the region of the Protococcotdeae, indi- 

 cates the probable line of connection with the Animal Kingdom. 

 The theory maintained here is that the Vegetable Kingdom orig- 

 inated independently, and that the first plants were as simple as 

 the lower Myxophyceae (if not simpler) in which the cell is of 

 very primitive structure. From the higher Myxophyceae^ with 

 their better developed cells, the step is not a long one to the sin- 

 gle-celled Protococcoideae, and from these, by way of the Fo/- 

 vocaccae, the passage is rather easy to some of the flagellate ani- 

 mals. In this paper it is held that animals came from plants, 

 following the path indicated by the dotted line, contrary to the 



276 



