322 Evolution in the Plant Kingdom. 
EVOLUTION IN THE PLANT KINGDOM.! 
BY JOHN M. COULTER. 
a. I should apologize for selecting a subject that has 
anything to do with so hackneyed a theme as evolution; but 
you will discover that I intend neither to explain nor defend it. 
In this presence neither should be necessary. The purpose is to 
give an illustration of evolution from the plant kingdom, chiefly 
because illustrations of this law are commonly taken from the ani- 
mal kingdom, and also because the case among plants is even more 
striking. One who staggers at the evolution of the horse can find 
among plants such interminable intergrading that fixity of species 
becomes a dream of the past, when they were arranged like puppets 
that popped up in their places when called for, always looked just 
alike, and were perfectly expressionless. Zoologists are fortunate 
in having as their stock-in-trade forms of life in which man is 
specially interested, both as an acquaintance and a kinsman.. The 
public that listens with pricked-up ears and discusses endlessly 
concerning the evolution of birds, mammals and man, and thus 
brings a certain popularity to zoology, cares not a straw for the 
wonderful structures of Gymnosperms and Lycopods, although 
furnishing irresistible arguments in favor of a theory that has 
revolutionized scientific thought. One sort of compensation has 
been that botanists have been considered a sort of harmless folk, 
while zoologists are “ infidel,” or “ progressive,” apostles of dark- 
ness or of light, according to the standpoint of the speaker. 
Botanical work has been no less effective and advanced in these 
latter days; but it lacks that possibility of spectacular display 
which would keep it in the mouth of the public. Monkeys and 
men the public wants to know about, but Pteridophytes and Phan- 
erogams are decidedly prosy. 
It will be found, however, upon a fair examination, that Botany 
1 Presidential .Address before the Indiana Academy of Science, 
December 28, 1887. 
