z BY se 25 
Ons 
720 Comparative Chemistry of Higher and Lower Plants, 
_ On past occasions? I have spoken of certain chemical com 
ponds in relation to plant morphology and evolution. The fats 
then advanced tended to show a chemical progression in plants, | 
and a mutual dependence between chemical constituents and | 
change of vegetable form, and in the following pages I vil 
this idea prominently before you. i 
_ Certain condensations of force on our planet are known a l 
chemical bodies. By usual methods they cannot be split up into | 
‘component parts, hence are denominated elements. However, | 
we have reason to believe that these so-called elements are it 
reality compounds themselves, formed in the cosmic laborator 
from still simpler aggregations of matter. 
In mineralogy the series of chemical formations are doubtless | 
the result of evolution, from the more simple elements to the : 
complex structure of the crystalline rocks.” | 
The plant kingdom may be considered as a third and higher 
stage; it contains in its structure combinations of the element 
carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, sulphur, phosphorus, @ a i 
compounds derived from the mineral world. K] 
The essence which underlies all force and life may be tracei ! 
through these three planes as a law of progression, little 
in its general course, though ever giving wee involved pro” 
for solution, accor ding t to thei itv , from element 
and minerals to plants, and even to attimals. 
The line separating each of these conditions of matter is i 
distinct, “the individual of the one encroaches upon the oe 
of the other ;”3 as a spiral coil is of a single thread, so “ 
in all her manifestations constitutes a unity,” 4 and the ro 
the spiral present each stage parallel, but in reality a contin 
~ Analogies should not be given too much weight, but from 
merous facts the above statenients seem theoretically reas 
-and may be provisionally accepted. The possibility of € 
evolution of the elements, in itself, is not only one of ihe 
T. Ceitein of Plants considered in Relation to their Morph 
Evolution.” Riattl bė Chem. Sec. of the A. A. r S. at Buffalo, T 
__ Stract published in the Botanical Gazette, vol. xi., October, 1886. “The 
Basis of Plant Forms,” Lecture delivered before the Frais Institute, $7 
pia, 1887. Franklin Institute al. 
2 Mineral Physi Physiography. By T. S Hunt. Boston, 
3 The Chemical Basis of Plant Forms. By Helen C. De S. Abbott. 
*T. Sterry Hunt, page 13, 
