INTRODUCTORY 



Through all the ages nature has ever been an 

 object of worship and reverence, of admiration and 

 wonder, rather than of scientific study. Indeed the 

 sciences of geology and biology to which the term 

 natural history is often restricted can claim an anti- 

 quity of but little over one century. First came the 

 random descriptions of travelers, yielding a store- 

 house of facts and fancies about the more striking 

 plants and animals i and paving the way for the first 

 step in a scientific study of nature's forms — the group- 

 ing of the forms already known, according to real or 

 supposed similarities. This proved the foundation 

 stone of the sciences of zoology and botany. This 

 was followed by the days when the sole ambition of 

 the majority of naturalists was to discover and name 

 some new form. The text-books of that day became 

 simply classified lists of names, and the museums be- 

 came simply classified displays of natural objects. 

 Thus were gathered a mass of facts ready for the next 

 step. That step was, first, the realization that the re- 

 semblances forming the basis of classification were 

 due to actual relationship. Then followed the reali- 

 zation that instead of living forms being unchangable 



