62 PLANT LIFE. 



same time proving the FlagellatcB to represent the starting- 

 point of life ; in fact such expressions as primitive or 

 primordial forms of life simply mean the oldest and most 

 primitive types actually known, and not necessarily the 

 earliest forms that ever existed. 



From the Flagellatce, as the earliest known starting- 

 point of life, several types radiate ; in other words, certain 

 members of the Flagellates, by a series of slow changes 

 extending over a long period of time, eventually become so 

 far removed, morphologically and functionally, from the 

 primitive stock, that the sum of evolved characteristics 

 constitute at the present day the distinguishing features of 

 animals and plants respectively. The weight of evidence 

 does not support the idea that plants and animals have for 

 all time existed as such, the relationship between the two 

 being shown only in the common manifestation of life ; but 

 rather that from a common starting-point of life the special- 

 ities of plants and animals have been evolved, the individu- 

 ality of each group becoming more and more emphasized 

 the further it recedes from the starting-point. At the same 

 time the two groups, plants and animals, become more and 

 more unlike each other as the differentiation of each 

 proceeds ; whereas at the starting-point from the primitive 

 Flagellates the two groups for some time possess many 

 characters in common, and those evolved features which 

 eventually gave individuality to plants and animals respect- 

 ively were not unfrequently met with in the pioneers of both 

 groups, and eventually discarded by the one and made a 

 speciality of by the other. How it is that life, the junior 

 member in the differentiation of forces on our globe, should 

 in such a comparatively short space of time rise from 

 obscurity and assert its equality, and even to a certain 



