HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 617 
BCT SING 
HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 
REV. L. J. TEMPLIN, HUTCHINSON, KAS. 
In tracing the history of the Vegetable Kingdom to its origin, we are carried 
back through a long series of fossil forms till we reach a point beyond which these 
forms cease to record the existence of vegetable. organisms. But here it is 
evident we cannot stop. As in the history of human nations, we trace it back 
through authentic history till this will carry us no further; we then resort to 
tradition till it can guide us no further and we are left to grope our way in the 
darkness of conjecture and speculation. So in tracing the history of plants, we 
finally reach a point beyond which the stony record cannot guide us by the light 
of fossil foot-prints. But we are assured that we have not yet reached the begin- 
ning of these organic forms, and we are compelled to resort to other modes of 
inquiry to approach nearer to the source which at best we cannot hope ever fully 
to reach. The earliest records of plant history have probably utterly perished 
without leaving so much as a trace of their existence behind. The oldest fossil 
plants are found in Lower Silurian rocks, and these, with one or two doubtful 
exceptions, are all marine plants. 
Below what has generally been regarded as the oldest fossil bearing rocks— 
the Silurian—is an extensive formation known as the Laurentian system. Until 
quite recently these rocks were considered azoic in character; but quite recently 
what is held by some as a fossil animal has been discovered in rocks of this 
formation in Canada, where they are enormously developed. Wide difference 
of opinion exists among scientific men as to whether this Hozoon Canadense is 
really of organic origin, and much discussion has been the result. But whatever 
may be the fate of this much disputed form, which was probably only one of 
many forms of protozoa that existed at that early period in the world’s history, 
we have very strong reasons for believing that organic forms did exist in great 
abundance at the time these rocks were deposited. As the animal system is 
incapable of digesting or assimilating inorganic matter, it is wholly dependent on 
the organizing agency of the vegetable kingdom to organize the elements of earth, 
air, and water, into forms that will build up and repair the wastes of the animal 
system. From this consideration it is evident that plants must have preceded, 
or, at least, have been contemporary with the earliest animal existence. The 
‘existence of animals would, therefore, prove the parallel existence of plants, even 
in the absence of all other evidence of this fact. 
If the animal nature of the cozoon, referred to above, be admitted, the 
existence of plants at the same time is established. But we have other proofs of 
the existence of plants during the period of the deposition of the Laurentian 
rocks. The first of these is the existence of extensive limestone deposits as form- 
IV—42 
