114 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



related forms will often appear under similar climatic conditions 

 in parts of the globe widely separated bv oceans or deserts." 

 (Charles Mohr.) 



On the summits of mountains surrounded at their bases by- 

 tropical vegetation, but whose tops are covered for the greater 

 part of the year by ice and snow, plants are found which are at 

 home in the Boreal Zone. And the flora of the Equatorial Zone 

 presents the same general features around the globe. This ap- 

 plies to representative orders if not to specific and generic types. 



The study of plant life takes us farther back in the earth's 

 history than the a2pearance of animal life. Minerals must be 

 studied from a much more remote period, and with these we 

 are carried back to the beginning, if such a term be admissible. 

 This takes us beyond our depth, and to conditions which are be- 

 yond our conception. The mind of man, with all his boasted intel- 

 ligence and reasoning powers, fails to conceive the immensity of 

 space, or the infinity of time or eternity ; we cannot conceive any- 

 thing which has neither beginning nor ending, and the more 

 closely we study the subject the more befogged our minds be- 

 come in trying to solve the mysteries of nature, and the more we 

 become convinced that the terms are, to our limited compre- 

 hension, meaningless. 



Before the earth was formed, the mineral constituents of 

 the gaseous substances from which it was subsequently solidi- 

 fied, were in continuous action. No matter whether we call it 

 nature, force, energy or any other name, this power controlled 

 all matter, and eventuallv evolved plant life, and later, . animal 

 life. 



Plants and animals are alike composed of mineral substance 

 and are entirely dependent upon the mineral kingdom for sus- 

 tenance and continuance. 



For a period of time of the duration of which we can have 

 no conception, the forces of nature were occupied in the reduc- 

 tion of the gases into liquid and solid matter, and the, to us, in- 

 conceivably immense amount of gaseous matter was gradually 

 reduced, by cooling and chemical action, to metals, rocks, liquids, 

 and the surrounding atmosphere. These changes are continuously 

 going on, nor can we conceive the limits ,[if such there be) to 

 which these forces of nature may extend. 



As animals and plants have been advancing to higher and 

 more complex forms it is probable that the womb of time will 

 continue to bring forth still more highly specialized organisms, 

 and the time may come when the puerile man of the present 

 period, with all his vaunted intelligence, and his assertion that 

 he is "Lord of Creation," for whose special benefit the world was 

 made, will be relegated to his proper sphere in the plan of creation, 



