220 THE DOCTRINE OF DESCENT. 



into a miracle. Quite recently, A. Braun has pointed out 

 the accordance of the botanical system, and therewith 

 of palseontological succession, with the development of 

 the individual plant, when he says : °^ — " In the further 

 elaboration of the natural system, the gradation of the 

 vegetal kingdom, and, at the same time, the relation of 

 the system to the history of development, becomes more 

 and more spontaneously and incontrovertibly manifest. 

 The Acotyledons are verified as Cryptogams, as they 

 were already considered by the old botanists of pre- 

 Linnsen times, and their relation to the Phaenogams is 

 thus more clearly pronounced. The Cryptogams are 

 separated into two essentially different divisions, in which 

 gradation is likewise distinctly pronounced (cellular and 

 vascular Cryptogams, Thallophytes and Kormophytes) ; 

 between the perfect Phaenogams and the Cryptogams 

 an intermediate grade has been shown, that of the Gym- 

 nosperms. But most important of all is the circumstance 

 that the four chief grades ascertained in the vegetal king- 

 dorii accurately correspond with the grades of develop- 

 ment occurring in the individuals of all the higher plants; 

 — the germ, the vegetative stem, the blossom and the 

 fruit." But why this parallelism is to be most important 

 of all, if it is not to lead us to the knowledge of true 

 causality, is beyond our comprehension. We can well 

 imagine that the " inherent causes " and the " Principle 

 of Perfection " may be vvelcomed as the refugium ig- 

 norantice, but not that they can really satisfy inquiry. For 

 our own standpoint, the accordance oftheresults of botan- 

 ical investigation must be extremely important, but it 

 is for the palpable reason that the theory thereby gains the 

 support and corroboration of another great series of facts. 



