76 THE HISTORY OF CREATION. 



the vegetable kingdom, and a second for the animal king- 

 dom, we may set up a number of independent stems of 

 Protista, each of which has developed, quite independently 

 of other stems and trunks, from a special archigonic form of 

 Monera. In order to make this relation more clear, we may 

 imagine the whole world of organisms as an immense 

 meadow which is partially withered, and upon which two 

 many-branched and mighty trees are standing, likewise 

 partially withered. The two great trees represent the 

 animal and vegetable kingdoms, their fresh and still green 

 branches the living animals and plants ; the dead branches 

 with withered leaves represent the extinct groups. The 

 withered grass of the meadow corresponds to the numerous 

 extinct tribes, and the few stalks, still green, to the still 

 living phyla of the kingdom Protista. But the common 

 soil of the meadow, from which all have sprung up, is 

 primaeval by protoplasm. 



