RELATION BETWEEN INSECTS, PLANTS AND MAMMALS. 123 
after the other, and hence it follows that a single telegraphic wire is able to effect 
all that is required. In the case of see/mg, in order to enable the form and color 
of an object to be rendered evident to the senses, it is necessary that a series of 
impressions, infinite in variety, be produced upon the retina in almost immeas- 
urably short space of time, and, practically, all at the same instant; we must 
have, in fact, an infinite series of waves transmitted at the same, or nearly the 
same moment. To do this through a single wire by electrical means is a difficult 
problem ; but that it will eventually be done by means of a single wire, is, we 
think, an undoubted fact. How it is to be done is another question; but we 
feel certain that no arrangement involving a multiplicity of wires will ever enable 
success in the direction aimed at to be attained. It is not because a multiplicity 
of wires is objectionable for practical telegraphic purposes that we say this; but, 
because, almost without exception, all complete solutions of problems, like that 
of the telephone, for example, have been most completely and thoroughly effect- 
ed by the simplest means.— Zelegraphic Journal. 
THE RELATION BETWEEN INSECTS, PLANTS AND MAMMALS. 
BY LESTER F. WARD, A. M., WASHINGTON, D. C. 
It is a fact of profound significance that the higher flowering plants made 
their first appearance on the globe simultaneously with the Hymenoptera and Dip- 
tera in the Jurassic and Cretaceous formations, while they did not reach their 
highest perfection until the Zegzdoptera had appeared in the early Tertiary. The 
Neuroptera and Orthoptera which are found in the Carboniferous could have con- 
tributed nothing to the demand for cross-fertilization, and the Coleopfera, ‘sparingly 
met with below the Trias, were doubtless then equally ineffectual in this respect ; 
as even at present they only supplement to a slight degree the work of the bees, 
flies, moths and butterflies. And we accordingly find that the vegetation prior to 
the Jurassic and Cretaceous epochs consisted almost wholly of Cryptogams and 
Gymnosperms, with only afew amentaceous and monochlamydeous Angiosperms 
in the highest of these strata. 
These facts justify the assumption that most of the higher flowering plants 
-would speedily perish were insect aid withdrawn, and also that but for such aid in 
the past we should now see, instead of our gorgeous flora of Orchids, Lilies, 
‘Magnolias, and Roses, one consisting chiefly of Ferns. Cycads, and Conifers, 
mingled with willows, oak, and alders, and plain grasses and rushes. 
But when we consider how poorly adapted Cryptogamous and Coniferous 
vegetation is to the support of animal life, we may also declare with perhaps 
~ equal certainty, that but for the Phenogamia there could have been no Mammalia. 
_ A picture that should represent herds of buffaloes and antelopes roaming amid 
the Ferns, Lepidophytes, and Calamites of the Carboniferous epoch would be an. 
