NATURAL SELECTION AND PLANT EVOLUTION 177 
early date, for (even ignoring the old and doubtful Lincolnshire 
Islan 
oO Mr. E. G. 
Baker, the Rey. M. C. H. Bird, Prof. G. S. Boulger, Mr. James 
. A. Woodruffe- 
NATURAL SELECTION AND PLANT EVOLUTION. 
By A. R. Horwoop. 
From time to time in every branch of scientific work it 
behoves us to glance back at the past efforts that we and our 
contemporaries have made towards the accomplishment of some 
ideal or the solution of some problem that we have set before us. 
he present appears to me to be one of those periods of retro- 
spection or introspection that come to each generation upon the 
dawn of a new or the eve of a past era. The celebration of a 
d w i 
will readily acknowledge the inability (at present) of paleo- 
of natural selec- 
ork amongst fossil plants, when not concerned with the 
systematic study of species, and the recognition of zones in the 
* Vide especially Dr. D. H. Scott’s Studies in Fossil Botany, a general guide 
to recent scientific discoveries summarizing the detailed monographs published 
by him on di it types of Carboniferous plants. 
