28 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



to a solid till it resulted, according to the hypothesis, in the elevation of land 

 above the ocean. 



After the upheaval of the land, the next thing in natural order would be 

 the utilizing of it, as soon as sufficiently cooled, by the growth thereon of low 

 orders of plant- life. And Moses next records that the Earth brought forth grass, 

 the herb yielding seed and the fruit-bearing tree, following each other in the same 

 ascending order as determined in nature by the advanced paleobotanist. It 

 should be noticed: i. That the grass is not mentioned as yielding seed; it 

 perhaps refers to sea-weeds, lichens and fungi, — the lowest of plants and the 

 first found fossils in the rocks, — which propagate by means of spores instead of 

 seeds; 2., that the herb is mentioned as yielding seed after his kind; and 3. 

 that the tree is specified as yielding fruit, as if for food. Now the fact that these 

 three groups of plants, evidently representing all the great subdivisions of the 

 vegetable kingdom, were all created on the third day, would lead to the suppo- 

 sition that the work begun on the several days might be only initiatory, and 

 might continue to unfold with higher forms of life during the succeeding days;: 

 for geology furnishes us no evidence that all these kinds of plants existed before 

 the commencement of animal life introduced on the fifth day. In fact geology 

 has not yet satisfactorily shown that plant remains exist in older rocks than do 

 those of animals. Yet the presence of graphite, a pure carbon, and so far as 

 known the result of vegetable growth, which is found in abundance in the older 

 rocks, argues the pre-existence of rank vegetation. The presence of iron ore is 

 also considered by some an indication of vegetable life, and iron is especially 

 abundant in the earlier strata. The statement is common that plant remains 

 doubtless exist in the Earth and only await future discovery. But this state- 

 ment, based as it is upon our ignorance, can have but little scientific weight. 



Another supposition, open to the same criticism, is that the conditions neces- 

 sary for the preservation of plants were not as favorable as for the preservation 

 of animals. This theory, however, has some plausibility because it is well known 

 that the woody structure of plants is far more destructible than the calcareous or 

 sihcious shells of animals, and it is only these remains of animals that are usually 

 found. Physiology teaches the priority of vegetable life, for it is essential to 

 animal life, being its universal food. Another question that frequently arises in 

 this connection is : How are we to account for the existence of vegetable Hfe 

 upon the Earth before the Sun appeared, when plants cannot grow without sun- 

 light ? 



According to the nebular hypothesis, the light and heat from the nebulous 

 Sun would have been sufficient to promote vegetable growth, even while it was 

 yet so enveloped in the vapors of its own acmosphere, or concealed by the un- 

 precipitated vapors surrounding the earth, as to be invisible. And, according 

 to the Mosaic record, the light abstract or cosmical of the first day would be 

 sufficient to promote vegetable growth. But it is highly probable as we shall see 

 a little later in discussing the creative days, that, in the panorama of creation 

 which Moses saw, his attention was not arrested by the low orders of plants 



