442 



Anniversary Meeting. 



[Nov. 30, 



identical, forms through long geological ages, which has always appeared 

 to me to be one of the most signal characteristics of the early condition 

 of the higher plants as compared with the higher animals. Other, and 

 perhaps even more cogent, reasons for plants being so little satisfactory 

 is, that their reproductive organs, those upon which the classification 

 is principally based, are rarely preserved, and seldom in connexion with 

 the vegetative organs, which are abundantly preserved ; and that, with 

 regard to these, the vegetative organs, their prevalent and best-preserved 

 characters, outline and venation, vary in individual species to a surprising 

 degree, and, being repeated in groups otherwise in no way related, become 

 too often fallacious guides. 



Another result, previously obtained in respect of other organisms, but 

 ably worked out by Professor Marsh as regards the Vertebrates, is that all 

 the Tertiary beds of North America — Eocene, Miocene, and Pliocene — are 

 of older date than the corresponding beds in Europe. This, though appa- 

 rently supported by his conclusions that the main migrations of animals 

 took place from the American to the Asiatic continent (which he deduces 

 from the American, as compared with the European, life-histories of the 

 Edentata, Marsupialia, Ungulata, Eodentia, Carnivora, and even Primates), 

 is a very bold generalization. Without presuming to question the abun- 

 dance and teachings of the American data, I cannot but think that his 

 theory of migration is, in the present state of palaeontology, premature, 

 especially under our almost absolute ignorance of the Vertebrate fossils of 

 the continents of Asia and Africa. The prodigal palseontological wealth of 

 the United States, as compared with the poverty of that of Europe as yet 

 known, may be likened to that of a metropolitan museum or library as 

 contrasted with a provincial collection ; and with regard to Central Asia 

 especially, there are indications, in the narratives of travellers and the re- 

 ports of natives, of vast accumulations of vertebrate fossils there existing. 

 These may revolutionize our present ideas, as Falconer's and Cautley's 

 discoveries in the outer Himalayas did those of our predecessors ; and 

 he would be a rash speculator who, having studied what is known of the 

 physical geography of Asia north of that range, ignored the probability of 

 the existence there of fossiliferous Cretaceous and Tertiary seas and lake- 

 basins, in comparison with which those of the Rocky Mountains may 

 sink into insignificance, both as to extent and productiveness. Professor 

 Huxley has, indeed, suggested, as an alternative or escape, the possible 

 former existence of a submerged continent, from which both Asia and 

 America derived their types of animals and plants, which is tantamount 

 to an opinion that the subject is not yet advanced enough for other than 

 speculation. 



Other results of Professor Marsh's labours are equally instructive 

 — such, I mean, as support the doctrine of Evolution ; but these have 

 been made known to the scientific public of this country by Mr. 

 Huxley, who examined the Yale College Museum last year. Since then, 



