1887] Comparative Chemistry of Higher and Lower Plants, 719 
type of art-expression existed, which seems to show a remark- 
able resemblance to those Old-World forms which reached its 
culmination in the classical type of the Mediterranean peoples. 
A study of these features of ceramic art enables us to draw 
many interesting and important conclusions. At times, as in 
the case of the reappearance of the same forms similarly treated 
in the stone graves of Tennessee and the mounds of Missouri 
and Arkansas, we are led to the view that they had, at least, a 
point of contact. In other instances we have evidence of mi- 
grations, while, again, in other cases, where both contact and 
migration are out of the question, we are able to trace the de- 
velopment of that innate principle of the human mind which, 
among all peoples, finds its expression in ornament and art. We 
see that the artistic powers of man, like the languages, were 
developed in distinct centres, and from primitive forms of ex- 
pression, which, of necessity, had principles in common; and 
this will amply account for the reappearance of the same forms 
in widely-separated regions. The early methods of ornamenta- 
tion of pottery were by finger-marks, scratches, cross-lines, and 
the impression of cords and fabrics, and these are found almost 
the whole world over. It is only when steps in advance are 
taken that the art of each nation receives its distinctive impress. 
COMPARATIVE CHEMISTRY OF HIGHER AND 
LOWER PLANTS: 
BY HELEN C. DE S. ABBOTT. 
pa coming before a popular audience to present a special sub- 
ject like Plant Chemistry, I do so in hopes perhaps of 
showing some of the less familiar sides of plant-life. The chief 
idea of the remarks I am about to make is one that has not 
Occupied to any great extent the minds of botanists and chemists, 
_ and if it be not true, at least, no other hypothesis has been sug- 
_ ested than the one I will indicate to account for the chemical 
compounds of the vegetable kingdom. 
_* Lecture delivered in the course given under the auspices of the Philosophical, 
Anthropological, and Biological Societies in the United States National Museum, 
__ Washington, April 23, 1887. : | 
