WHERE DID LIFE BEGIN? 



THE subject of the distribution of plants 

 and animals has for a long time en- 

 gaged the attention of many able, persist- 

 ent, and discriminating investigators. Much 

 time and effort have been expended in simply 

 observing and describing the various means 

 by which they get about from place to place. 

 The methods and means by which the seeds 

 of plants are carried and deposited in new 

 localities, the agency of insects, birds, and 

 other animals in their distribution, no less 

 than their own ingenious contrivances for 

 floating with the wind and tide, and for catch- 

 ing on to every moving object, all have been 

 carefully observed and faithfully chronicled. 



The first important truth enforced by these 

 observations is that all organic life on the 

 earth Is in a generic, or tribal sense at least, 



