640 Evolution in the Vegetable Kingdom. (July, 
four great periods, the first extending through the Carboniferous 
and corresponding to the modern Palzozoic, the second embrac- 
ing the Grés bigarré, or Buntersandstein, only, the third seeming 
to include the rest of the Trias, the Jurassic, and the Cretaceous, 
and the fourth completing the series. The table which he gives 
on page 219 of the “ Prodrome” is designed to show the devel- 
opment of the higher types of vegetation in successively higher 
strata, and in discussing it he remarks that “in the first period 
there exist hardly anything but cryptogams, plants having a more 
simple structure than that of the following classes. In the sec- 
ond period the number of the two following classes becomes pro- 
portionately greater. During the third period it is the gymno- 
sperms which specially predominate. This class of plants may 
be considered intermediate between the cryptogams and the true 
phanerogams {dicotyledons} which preponderate during the fourth 
period.” The words italicized in the liberal translation here 
made are scarcely less than a prophecy, and one whose fulfillment 
is only now being tardily granted by systematic botanists. 
As the result of his prolonged studies, Brongniart finally 
arrived at the following remarkable classification of plants, as 
drawn up on page 11 of the “ Prodrome,” and repeated on page 
20 of the “ Histoire :” 
1. Agams. 
1. Cellular ae io tor 
ur. Vascular cryptogam: 
iv, Gymnospermous RAE 
v. Monocotyledonous angiospermous phanerogams. 
VI. Dicotyledonous angiospermous phanerogams. 
In the present state of botanical science Brongniart’s “ agams” 
would probably all be relegated to his second group, or cellular 
cryptogams, but in other respects this classification is preémi- 
nently sound, and seems likely to be vindicated by the future 
_ progress of science, 
It will thus be seen that Brongniart founded the science of 
vegetable palzeontology firmly upon the law of progressive devel- 
opment, and there can be little doubt that if his influence could 
have been felt by botanists as it was by vegetable paleontologists 
in general, botany might have advanced pari passu with zodlogy, 
: ae : was far in advance of his time, and his views were 
z — d to meet wn violent opposition. His method was, with 
