232 EVIDENCE FROM PALAEOPHYTOLOGY 
But however valuable such results may be in leading towards a better 
knowledge, and more rational views, still they deal with relatively minor 
matters, and do not directly touch quéstions of prime origin. As to the 
early stages of evolution, of Bryophytes as well as Pteridophytes, the study 
of Fossils is still silent, and it seems not improbable that. it will remain 
so. In order to frame some view of the prime origin of Land-Plants 
recourse must accordingly be taken to the only other method available 
for resolution of these problems, viz., the comparison of living forms. 
Experiment, another possible line of enquiry, but still in its infancy, is 
left out of account at present, for reasons explained above (p. 7). Those 
who deal habitually with the stronger weapon of direct historical fact 
involved in the study of the fossils are apt to feel some distrust of the 
more delicate weapon of comparison: it is liable to be weak and indecisive, 
and its results are much more in the nature of expressions of opinion 
than of actual demonstration. Still, so long as comparison is the only 
means available, it is necessary to use it, notwithstanding its weakness 
and uncertainty: while its conclusions will be checked, wherever possible, 
by reference to the more direct results of Palaeophytology. Such con- 
clusions may ultimately come also under revision, on the grounds of 
their probability in the past, at the hands of the experimental morphologist. 
But as his experiments can never apply directly to any organisms except 
those now existing on the earth, the conclusions which he arrives at 
can never have the direct cogency which is inherent in Palaeo-phytological 
fact. 
For reasons thus explained, it is upon comparative study that we must 
chiefly depend at present, when we attempt to trace the origin of the 
sporophyte generation, whether as exhibited in forms now living, or in 
those which the palaeophytologists are disclosing with such amazing 
rapidity. ° 
